Accused Alabama prof shot,
killed brother in 1986
BY DESIREE HUNTER
AND JAY LINDSAY
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITERS
More than 23 years before a
college professor was accused of
shooting six of her colleagues,
her teenage brother died from the
blast of a shotgun she held in the
kitchen of her family's home in
Massachusetts.
The 1986 shooting was ruled
accidental and no charges were
filed against Amy Bishop. The
case could get a closer look as
authorities try to explain why they
believe the Harvard-educated
neurobiologist opened fire Friday,
killing three.
Bishop, a rare woman suspected
of a workplace shooting, had
just months left teaching at
the University of Alabama in
Huntsville because she was
denied tenure.
Some, including the husband
of one victim and one of her
students, have said she was upset
after being denied the job-for
life security afforded tenured
academics. Authorities have
refused to discuss a motive, and
school spokesman Ray Garner
said the faculty meeting wasn't
called to discuss tenure.
It appeared the violent episode
in Bishop's past wasn't known to
her colleagues in Huntsville.
Bishop shot her brother, Seth,
an 18-year-old accomplished
violinist, in the chest in 1986,
said Paul Frazier, the police chief
in Braintree Mass. where the
shooting occurred.
Both William Setzer, chairman
of chemistry department at UAH,
and university police Chief Chuck
Gailes said they had not heard
about the Massachusetts incident
until being asked by reporters
Saturday.
The Norfolk County District
Attorney's office released a
1987 report with details of their
investigation, based on interviews
with Amy Bishop and her parents
conducted by a state trooper
after the shooting. The report
concluded Seth Bishop was killed
by an "accidental discharge of a
firearm."
Amy Bishop told investigators
she was trying . to learn how to
use a shotgun that her father had
purchased for protection in the
home after a break-in. She said
she did not know how to use the
weapon and brought it downstairs
to the kitchen for help unloading
She said she was raising it when
"someone said something to her
and she turned and the gun went
off" while her brother was walking
across the kitchen, according to
the report.
She then ran out of the house
with the weapon. When she
talked to investigators 11 days
after the shooting, she told them
she could only remember hearing
her mother scream and she didn't
know the gunshot struck her
brother until later.
The report by Trooper Brian
Howe said Bishop's "highly
emotional state" immediately after
the shooting made it impossible to
question her. The report said she
was 19 at the time. Police say she
is 42 now, though the university's
Web site lists her as 44.
The handling of the case
prompted back-and-forth claims
from the current Braintree police
chief, Frazier, and the former
chief, John Polio.
Frazier said Polio instructed
officers to release Amy Bishop to
her mother, who had once served
on a police personnel board.
That move upset officers who
remembered the 1986 shooting,
Frazier said.
"The police officers here were
very upset about that," said
Frazier, who was a patrolman at
the time and spoke to officers who
remembered the incident that day,
including one who filed a report
on it.
Frazier also said the police records
of the shooting have disappeared
and he planned to meet with the
local district attorney over the
possibility of launching a criminal
investigation into how the Bishop
case was handled.
Polio, now 87, said Saturday at
his Braintree home that he was
astonished at any implication
of a cover-up. He said he didn't
instruct officers to release Bishop
and wasn't close to her mother,
who he said served on the police
board years before the shooting.
"(There's) no cover-up, no
missing records," Polio said. "If
they're missing, they're missing
since I retired."
Polio said that at the time there
were questions about whether
Amy Bishop intended to kill her
brother became of conflicting
reports about whether the two had
argued or had just been horsing
around when the gun was fired.
Polio said the officer who took
Bishop into custody told Polio he
was upset she was released but
"it was an isolated cop, telling
me something. It wasn't a big
movement."
Attempts by AP to track down
addresses and phone numbers for
Bishop's family in the Braintree
area weren't immediately
successful Saturday. The current
police chief said he believed her
family had moved away.
In Huntsville, students, faculty
and the community struggled to
explain the violence.
The three killed were Gopi
K. Podila, the chairman of
the Department of Biological
Sciences, and two other faculty
members, Maria Ragland Davis
and Adriel Johnson. Three people
were wounded. Two of them
Joseph Leahy and staffer
Stephanie Monticciolo were
in critical condition early Sunday.
The third, Luis Cruz-Vera, had
been released from the hospital.
Bishop was arrested shortly after
the shooting and was charged
with capital murder. It wasn't
immediately known if she has
an attorney. No one was home at
the couple's house. Her husband,
James Anderson, was detained
and questioned by police but
has not been charged. She is the
mother of four children.
A 9 mm handgun was found
in the bathroom of the building
where the shootings occurred, and
Huntsville police spokesman Sgt.
Mark Roberts said Bishop did not
have a permit for it.
Descriptions of Bishop from
students and colleagues were
mixed. Some saw a strange woman
who had difficulty relating to her
students, while others described a
witty, intelligent teacher.
Students and colleagues
described Bishop as smart, but
someone who often had difficulty
explaining complicated concepts.
Bishop was well-known in the
research community, appearing on
the cover of the winter 2009 issue
of "The Huntsville R&D Report,"
a local magazine focusing on
engineering, space and genetics.
Setzer, the chemistry chairman,
said Bishop was appealing the
tenure decision made last year.
"Politics and personalities"
always play a role in the tenure
process, he said. "In a close
department it's more so. If you
have any lone wolves or bizarre
personalities, it's a problem and
I'm thinking that certainly came
into play here."
Don't ask when: Repeal of
gay ban won't be soon
By ANNE FLAHERTY
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
As promised, the Pentagon has
begun examining how the ban
on gays serving openly could
be eased and then repealed, but
a complete repeal of the "don't
ask, don't tell" policy is probably
years away.
The two officials appointed
to lead a yearlong internal
assessment Gen. Carter Ham,
commander of U.S. Army forces
in Europe, and Pentagon General
Counsel Jeh Johnson met for
the first time on Feb. 9.
As that study gets under way,
officials were expected by mid-
March to suggest ways to relax
enforcement of the law. Of
particular interest is minimizing
cases of "third party outings,"
where a service member is kicked
out after being reported by others
to be gay.
The protracted time line is about
more than giving military leaders
time to assess the impact on
troops and put new rules in place.
The multiyear process also is a
strategic way of getting troops
used to the idea before they have
to accept change. Politically, the
time line puts off congressional
debate over lifting the ban until
after elections this fall.
Reversing the military's policy
on gays, which is based on a
1993 law and would require an
act of Congress, would mark the
biggest upheaval to the military's
personnel policies since the
1948 executive order on racial
integration.
The goal, according to senior
defense and military officials, is
to avoid the backlash that could
result from imposing change
too fast. While officials expect
resistance from only a minority
of service members and believe
that it could be contained with
discipline, officials fear isolated
incidents of violence could erupt
as a means of protest.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates
suggested as much in recent
congressional testimony, when he
said he had learned from "stupid"
management attempts to dictate
change too quickly as a senior
CIA official in the 1980 s.
"Stupid was trying to impose a
policy from the top without any
regard for the views of the people
who were going to be affected or
the people who would have to
effect the policy change," Gates
said.
As part of the internal review,
Gates said the military would
survey service members and
their families on any changes to
policies.
"A guiding principle of our efforts
will be to minimize disruption
and polarization within the ranks,
with a special attention paid to
those serving on the front lines,"
Gates told a Senate committee
this month.
President Barack Obama, who
says the ban is unjust, is counting
on a major cultural shift among
American voters in the 17 years
when it went into effect. Then,
Democratic lawmakers joined the
military in resisting a proposal by
President Bill Clinton that would
have let gays serve openly.
Clinton emerged from the debate
politically bruised, with GOP
critics casting the new president as
a social liberal who was woefully
out of touch with the military.
Since then, Democratic
lawmakers have been reluctant
to take on the issue as well.
Since taking control of Congress
three years ago, following the
2006 elections, Democrats have
focused their efforts instead on
more popular military-related
issues like ending the war in Iraq.
According to a Washington Post-
ABC News poll, three-quarters of
Americans say that they support
openly gay people serving in the
military. The 75 percent figure
is far above the 44 percent of
Americans who said so in May
1993.
Former Vice President Dick
Cheney, defense secretary in the
first Bush administration, said
Sunday he supports a review of
the policy.
"When the chiefs come forward
and say we think we can do it, it
strikes me it's time to reconsider
the policy," he said. "I'm reluctant
to second-guess the military in
this regard."
Cheney, who has an openly gay
daughter, said he thinks society
has moved on from staunch
opposition to gays serving in the
military.
\"lt's partly a generational
question," he told ABC's "This
Week," adding that "things have
changed significantly" since the
policy took effect.
Obama's national security
adviser, retired Marine Gen. James
Jones, said on CNN's "State of
the Union" that the policy "has
to evolve with the social norms
of what is acceptable and what is
not."