HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – An Alabama professor accused of shooting six colleagues was vocal in her resentment over being denied tenure and the looming loss of her teaching post, though relatives and students said she never suggested she might become violent.
Not even Amy Bishop’s husband knew she might turn violent, according to the man’s father. 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 last Friday afternoon, leaving three dead and another three wounded.
Jim Anderson, the father of Bishop’s husband, James Anderson, told The Associated Press on Sunday his son had no idea Bishop was planning the bloodshed she’s accused of.
“He knew nothing. He didn’t know anything,” the father said. He said that the police had spoken with his son at length and that “they are doing a good job.”
Indeed, there were many 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, Mass., 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.
