University of Alabama in Huntsville shooting

The suspected murder weapon, a 9-mm Ruger P95 handgun, was found in a bathroom on the second floor of the building. Bishop did not have a permit to carry a concealed weapon. She was arrested a few minutes later outside the building.[9] Shortly after her arrest, Bishop was quoted as saying, "It didn't happen. There's no way." When asked about the deaths of her colleagues, Bishop replied, "There's no way. They're still alive."[10]

Police interviewed Bishop's husband, James Anderson, after it was determined that she had called him to pick her up after the shooting; they did not charge him. The couple was seen leaving their home with duffel bags on Friday afternoon prior to the shooting.[11] Anderson revealed that his wife had borrowed the gun used in the shooting, and that he had escorted her to an indoor shooting range in the weeks prior to the incident.[12]

Shortly after Bishop's arrest, there was concern that she had "booby trapped the science building with a 'herpes bomb'" intended to spread the virus.[2] She had worked with the herpes virus during her post-doctoral studies, and had written a novel describing the spread of a virus similar to herpes throughout the world. The police had already searched the premises, finding only the handgun used in the shooting.[2]

Bishop joined the faculty of the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Alabama in Huntsville as an assistant professor in 2003;[26] she was teaching five courses prior to the shooting.[27] Previously, she was an instructor at Harvard Medical School.[26] She and her husband's "portable cell incubator" came in third in a technology competition, winning $25,000.[28] Prodigy Biosystems, where Anderson is employed, raised $1.25 million to develop the automated cell incubator.[2] David Williams, president of UAH, considered that the incubator "[would] change the way biological and medical research is conducted",[25] but some scientists consulted by the press declared it unnecessary and too expensive.[29]

Bishop had written three unpublished novels. One featured a woman scientist working to defeat a pandemic virus, and struggling with suicidal thoughts at the threat of not earning tenure.[30] The novels reportedly "reveal a deep preoccupation with the concept of deliverance from sin".[25] Bishop is the second cousin of the novelist John Irving. She was a member of the Hamilton Writer's Group while living in Ipswich, Massachusetts in the late 1990s and was said to believe that writing would be "her ticket out of academia."[31] She had a literary agent although she had not published any books. Members of the club said she "would frequently cite her Harvard degree and family ties to Irving to boost her credential as a serious writer."[31] Another member described Bishop as smart but abrasive in her interactions and as feeling "entitled to praise."[31]

Several colleagues had expressed concern over Bishop's behavior. She was described as interrupting meetings with "bizarre tangents ... left field kind of stuff", being "strange", and, notably, "crazy". One of these colleagues was a member of Bishop's tenure-review committee. After Bishop's tenure was denied and she learned that this colleague referred to her as "crazy," she filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), alleging sex discrimination. She cited the professor's remark to be used as possible evidence in that case. The professor did not retract his comments:

The professor was given the opportunity to back off the claim, or to say it was a flippant remark. But he didn't. 'I said she was crazy multiple times and I stand by that,' the professor said. 'This woman has a pattern of erratic behavior. She did things that weren't normal ... she was out of touch with reality.'[32]

Bishop was reportedly a poor instructor and unpopular among her students. She dismissed several graduate students from her lab, and others sought transfers out.[25] In 2009, several students said they complained to administrators about Bishop on at least three occasions, saying she was "ineffective in the classroom and had odd, unsettling ways." A petition signed by "dozens of students" was sent to the department head. The complaints, however, did not result in any classroom changes.[33] Also in 2009, Bishop published an article in a vanity-press medical journal listing her husband and three minor children as co-authors.[34] The article was later removed from the journal website.[35]

As explained by Williams, the university president, after Bishop was denied tenure in March 2009, she could not expect to have her teaching contract renewed after March 2010. She appealed the decision to the University's administration. Without reviewing the content of the tenure application, they determined that the process was carried out according to policy and denied the appeal. The routine faculty meeting at which Bishop opened fire was unrelated to her tenure.[36]

Bishop's husband said the denial of tenure had been "an issue" in recent months and described the tenure process as "a long, basically hard fight".[37] He said that it was his understanding that she "exceeded the qualifications for tenure", and that she was distressed at the likelihood of losing her position barring a successful appeal. Bishop approached members of the University of Alabama System's board of trustees, and hired a lawyer who was "finding one problem after another with the process". One point of dispute was whether two of her papers had been published in time to count toward tenure.[38] Bishop, who gave more emphasis to obtaining patents rather than publishing papers, reportedly received several warnings that she needed to publish more to receive tenure.[25]

Bishop had previous encounters with law enforcement officials due to "an outburst or violent act" on her part. In each instance, she remained "unscathed". The incidents did not come to the attention of the UAH administration or other employers.[2]

In 1986, she shot and killed her brother with a shotgun, in what was initially ruled an accident based on her mother's testimony; she was not charged with a crime. In 1994, she and her husband were questioned regarding a letter-bomb incident involving a doctor at a facility at which she had previously been employed. In 2002, she was charged with assault after striking a woman in the head during a dispute at a restaurant, but she was not convicted.[2]

At the age of 21, Bishop fatally shot her 18-year-old brother, Seth Bishop, on December 6, 1986, at their home in Braintree, Massachusetts.[20][39] Bishop fired two shots from a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun[25] (one into her bedroom wall, then one into her brother's chest while they were in the kitchen with their mother). Later she pointed the weapon at a moving vehicle on the adjacent road and tried to get into the vehicle.[40][41] The death of her brother was classified as an accident by Braintree police.

In statements to Braintree police that day, she and her mother, Judy Bishop, both claimed the shooting was accidental.[42] Police found that the shotgun had a live round in the chamber. This would have required Bishop to rack the slide of the weapon after shooting her brother to simultaneously eject the spent shell and reload the chamber.[25] After a brief inquiry into the incident by the state police in 1986 (reported in 1987), they repeated the Braintree police department's initial assessment that the shooting was accidental. The district attorney Bill Delahunt, later elected as a Democratic United States House Representative, did not file charges.[43] Detailed records of the shooting had disappeared by 1988.[39] Braintree police chief Paul Frazier said on February 13, 2010, "The report's gone, removed from the files."[42][44]

After speaking with officers involved with the case in 1986, Frazier called the "accident" description inaccurate.[9] He and others said that then-chief John Polio had ordered Bishop released to her mother[45][25] who was allegedly a political supporter of the chief[25] as a member of the Braintree town meeting.[8] They said that Amy Bishop had demanded to meet with Polio personally after the arrest[46][25] instead of being charged for the shooting.[9][39] Frazier was not on duty during the incident but recalled "how frustrated the members of the department were over the release" of Amy Bishop.[45]

Other officers, he said, believed that Polio had "fix[ed] a murder", resulting in what Frazier described as "a miscarriage of justice. Just because it was a friend of his."[25] The now-retired Polio denied that there had been a cover-up.[39] Frazier's 2010 account and the 1987 Massachusetts State Police report differ in several key details, including whether Bishop had been arguing with her brother or with her father before the shooting.[44]

On February 16, 2010, Braintree officials announced that the files previously missing had been located,[47] and Norfolk County District Attorney William Keating concluded that probable cause existed in 1986 to arrest and charge Amy Bishop for crimes committed after she fled the house. She had taken the shotgun to a nearby auto dealership shop and brandished it at two employees in an attempt to get a car.[47] She could have been charged with assault with a dangerous weapon, carrying a dangerous weapon, and unlawful possession of ammunition.[47]

The statute of limitations has expired on each of these charges. The most serious charge considered in 1986 was manslaughter for the death of her brother.[47] Deval Patrick, the governor of Massachusetts, ordered the state police to review their investigation, saying, "It is critical that we provide as clear an understanding as possible about all aspects of this case and its investigation to ensure that where mistakes were made they are not repeated in the future."[48] An investigation was opened in which the state cooperated with the Norfolk County District Attorney's office to assess the state and local police, and then-DA's handling of the case.[48]

On February 25, 2010, District Attorney Keating sent a letter to District Court Judge Mark Coven, to start a judicial inquest into the 1986 shooting. Keating said that recently enlarged crime scene photos from Bishop's bedroom reveal a news article in which a similar crime was reported. He speculated that this article may relate to Bishop's intent. Keating did not identify the specific news article, but The Boston Globe wrote that an Internet search revealed that "two weeks earlier, the parents of Patrick Duffy, the actor who played Bobby Ewing on the popular television show Dallas, were killed in Montana by an assailant wielding a 12-gauge shotgun, who then held up a car dealership, stole a pickup truck, and fled."[49]

On March 1, 2010, former Massachusetts State Police Detective Brian Howe discussed the case. Howe was the lead investigator for the state police in the Bishop case. He said he looks forward to addressing the judicial inquest into the shooting, and stands by his 1987 report. He had agreed with Captain Theodore Buker, the late Braintree lead investigator, that the shooting was accidental. Howe said he was assigned to the case nearly two hours after the shooting and immediately called Braintree. Buker told him that he would not be needed that day and that Bishop had already been released into her parents' custody. Howe stated that Braintree police never informed him that Bishop had later allegedly accosted employees at a car dealership at gunpoint, demanding a car.[50] Howe said that he repeatedly requested the December 6 incident reports from the Braintree police, but never received them.[51]

On March 1, 2010, Norfolk District Attorney William Keating announced that an inquest would be held April 13–16, 2010.[52] Judge Mark Coven, first justice of Quincy District Court, was scheduled to hold the inquest.[52] During the inquest Braintree police officers testified that Judy Bishop had asked for Polio by name before the officers were ordered to release Amy Bishop. Judy Bishop, Polio, and his wife all testified that Judy Bishop and Polio had not been friends, and Judy Bishop denied that she had asked for Polio at the station.[25]

On June 16, 2010, Bishop was charged with first degree murder in her brother's death, nearly 24 years after his shooting.[53] Keating commented, "I can't give you any explanations, I can't give you excuses, because there are none. Jobs weren't done, responsibilities weren't met and justice wasn't served."[53] Bishop's parents, who claim that the Braintree officers lied about the events at the station, issued a statement after the indictment. They wrote, "We cannot explain or even understand what happened in Alabama. However, we know that what happened 23 years ago to our son, Seth, was an accident."[25]

The protagonist of the first of Bishop's unpublished novels is a woman who, as a child, attempted to frighten a friend after an argument but accidentally killed the friend's brother. Patrick Radden Keefe has speculated, after reviewing the evidence, that Bishop had meant to frighten or shoot her father with the shotgun after an argument and mistook her brother for him.[25]

According to investigators, Bishop and her husband, James Anderson, were suspects in a 1993 letter-bomb case.[20][54] Paul Rosenberg, a Harvard Medical School professor and physician at Children's Hospital Boston, received a package containing two pipe bombs, which failed to explode.[20][54] Rosenberg was Bishop's supervisor at a Children's Hospital neurobiology lab. Bishop had allegedly been concerned about receiving a negative evaluation from Rosenberg, and reportedly "had been in a dispute" with Rosenberg.[20] Bishop resigned from her position at the hospital because Rosenberg felt she "could not meet the standards required for the work."[54][55] According to documents based upon witness interviews, Bishop was "reportedly upset" and "on the verge of a nervous breakdown" as a result.[55]

Anderson reportedly told a witness that he wanted to "shoot", "stab", or "strangle" Rosenberg prior to the attempted bombing. Anderson denied he ever having threatened Rosenberg, saying, "I wouldn't know the guy if he walked into a bar. And allegedly this tip came into a tip line, and the validity of the witness was never ascertained."[55] Per investigators, the USPIS-ATF investigation "focused" on Bishop and Anderson, but was closed without charges being filed, reportedly due to lack of evidence.[16][54][56][57] At one point during the investigation, the couple refused to cooperate with investigators. They refused to open their door, to allow searches of their home, or to take polygraph tests.[54][55]

The chief federal prosecutor in Boston at the time, U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz, reviewed the case following the shooting in Huntsville. She ultimately decided Bishop would not be charged in the bombing attempt. She determined that the initial investigation in 1993 was "appropriate and thorough"; the case remains unsolved.[58]

In 2002, Bishop was charged with punching a woman who had received the last booster seat at an International House of Pancakes in Peabody, Massachusetts. According to the police report, Bishop strode over to the other woman, demanded the seat, and launched into a profanity-laced rant. When the woman would not give the seat up, Bishop punched her in the head, all the while yelling "I am Dr. Amy Bishop!" Bishop's victim was identified as Michelle Gjika. Bishop pled guilty to misdemeanor assault plus disorderly conduct for the assault, and received probation. In the aftermath of the 2010 Alabama shooting, Gjika declined to comment on the restaurant incident; she said, "It's not something I want to relive."[59][60]

In addition to recommending probation, prosecutors recommended that Bishop attend anger management classes. It is unclear whether the judge in the case ordered her to do so.[59] Her husband said she had never attended anger management classes.[61]

On September 24, 2012, Bishop was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.[73] Norfolk County declined to seek Bishop's extradition. Bishop stated through her Massachusetts lawyer that she wanted to be tried for her brother's death in order to vindicate herself.[25] Bishop is serving her sentence at the Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women in Wetumpka, Alabama.[74] As of 2020 her security classification is medium and her residence is a dormitory instead of a cell block.[75]

After pleading guilty in September 2012 and waiving her right to appeal, Bishop filed an appeal on February 11, 2013. The appeal stated that she was not informed of the rights she would be waiving by pleading guilty, that she was not correctly informed of the minimum range of punishment, and the circuit court failed to explain that she could withdraw her plea. On April 26, 2013, the Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama rejected the appeal; they stated that Bishop failed to challenge the validity of her guilty pleas in the circuit court and did not file either a motion to withdraw her pleas or a motion for a new trial.[76]