Woman professor accused of shooting six colleagues at U.S. university 'was furious at being denied tenure'



Police mugshot: Amy Bishop is charged with capital murder

The woman academic accused of shooting six colleagues at an American university kept quiet about a violent episode in her past around co-workers and students.

But there was one personal issue she didn't mind loudly complaining about: being denied tenure.

Still, those who knew Amy Bishop said she had never suggested she might become violent.

Everyone from family and friends to her students at the University of Alabama in Huntsville said the intelligent and at times awkward teacher seemed normal in the hours before police say she opened fire in a faculty meeting on Friday afternoon, leaving three dead and three wounded.

Investigators have declined to discuss a motive, but Bishop didn't hide her displeasure over the fact she'd been denied tenure - a type of job-for-life security afforded to academics.

Bishop was up front about the issue, often bringing it up in meetings where the subject wasn't appropriate, said William Setzer, chairman of the department of chemistry.

'In committee meetings, she didn't pretend that it wasn't happening or anything,' Setzer said.

Arrested: Amy Bishop is detained by Huntsville police on Friday on the University of Alabama campus

Nothing unusual: Even in the days and hours before the shooting, Bishop's friends, colleagues and students said she was acting like the intelligent - but odd - professor they knew

'She was even loud about it: That they denied her tenure and she was appealing it, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.'

But there were other things Bishop apparently did not reveal to those around her.

In 1986, Bishop shot and killed her 18-year-old brother with a shotgun at their Braintree, Massachusetts, home.

She told police at the time that she had been trying to learn how to use the gun, which her father had bought for protection, when it accidentally discharged.

In all, three shots were fired: Braintree police Chief Paul Frazier said she shot once into a wall, then shot her brother, then fired a third time into the ceiling.

Authorities released her and said the episode was a tragic accident. She was never charged, though Frazier on Saturday questioned how the investigation was handled.

Some of Bishop's colleagues, including Setzer, said they did not know about her brother's death.

Police say the gun she's accused of using in the Alabama shooting wasn't registered, and investigators don't know how or where she got it.

Braintree Chief of Police, Paul Frazier points to the police log from December 6, 1986, the only remaining document regarding the Amy Bishop's accidental fatal shooting of her brother, Seth Bishop

Bishop, who is in her 40s and has four children, was arrested soon after the shooting and charged with capital murder.

Three counts of attempted murder were filed against Bishop over the weekend, according to jail records. Her husband was detained and questioned by police but has not been charged.

James Anderson said his wife had a lawyer but would not say who it was.

However, he told the Chronicle of Higher Education earlier in the day that he had no idea his wife had a gun - nor did he know of any threats or plans to carry out the shooting when he dropped her off at the faculty meeting Friday.

Just after the shooting, Anderson told the Chronicle, she called and asked him to pick her up. She never mentioned the shooting, he said.

Even in the days and hours before the shooting, Bishop's friends, colleagues and students said she was acting like the intelligent - but odd - professor they knew.

'She was fine. It was a normal day,' said student Kourtney Lattimore.

Killed were Gopi K. Podila, the chairman of the Department of Biological Sciences, and professors Adriel Johnson and Maria Ragland Davis. 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.