Shooting at Univ. Alabama Huntsville (merged thread folds in Parents Cafe comments)

Parents Forum
861

<p>

</p>

<p>07DAD, your assertion that the police had the discretion and it was proper to decide not to do further investigation is inconsistent with the opinion of the Braintree police including then chief Polio himself. I might give you the lattitude that the police should be able to decide, but the very police officers who were there do not even think the case was handled properly.</p>

<p>[Ex-chief</a> sees flaws in investigation of 1986 shooting of Amy Bishop’s brother - The Boston Globe](<a href=“http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/02/16/ex_chief_sees_flaws_in_investigation_of_1986_shooting_of_amy_bishops_brother/]Ex-chief”>http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/02/16/ex_chief_sees_flaws_in_investigation_of_1986_shooting_of_amy_bishops_brother/)</p>

<p>Also read this about the statement made by Braintree Chief Frazier, pay attention to the quote from officer Ronald Salimini who apprehended Amy at gun point that day and see what he thinks about the how Amy case was handled:</p>

<p>[Braintree</a> chief’s comments on Bishop shooting - Boston.com](<a href=“http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/02/13/braintree_chief_on_bishop_case/]Braintree”>http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/02/13/braintree_chief_on_bishop_case/)
Moreover, Kivlan the assistant DA at the time said:</p>

<p>“As I previously stated, the Braintree police report that was released today and [had] previously been reported as missing by the department, had never been brought to my attention,’’ Kivlan said yesterday. “Why the Braintree Police Department did not seek complaints in the Quincy District Court on the above charges is unknown to me.’’</p>

<p>and</p>

<p>“Even based on the facts that were there, [prosecutors] should have at a minimum conducted either an inquest or a grand jury proceeding, both of which would have allowed any of the witnesses to be summonsed either before the grand jury or a judge to evaluate their testimony under oath,’’ said Timothy M. Burke, a former Suffolk prosecutor and criminal defense attorney in Needham.</p>

<p>Kivlan, Delahunt’s first assistant who reviewed the police reports into the shooting of Seth Bishop and accepted the police finding of an accident, has acknowledged there were inconsistencies in the witness statements, but he said they did not challenge the overall police finding that it was an accidental discharge. Kivlan, however, said he did not know at the time that Bishop had fled and pointed a shotgun at someone else, which would have changed his assessment of the case.</p>

<p>[Bishop</a> could have been tried, DA says - The Boston Globe](<a href=“http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/02/17/bishop_could_have_been_tried_da_says/]Bishop”>http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/02/17/bishop_could_have_been_tried_da_says/)</p>

862

<p>Northstarmom, That was the point of my post in I think 841, it is a narcissistic injury that propels this kind of thing possibly, regardless of class,job,gang activityetc,-not unique to academia. So sad for all involved.</p>

863

<p>The husband said in the ABC clip (from Post #843) and in print media that tenure is “a long, hard battle” and that the media should focus their attention on it. Sounds like, in his opinion, there’s some big, juicy story to be exposed, and he wants the media to shine a light on it.</p>

<p>Seems to me the big story is that a Harvard-educated mother of four shot six people and killed three of them. Whether she’s a professor or a MacDonald’s worker, no difference in this story.</p>

864

<p>More bad press for the husband:</p>

<p>Her husband’s assertion about the ATF letter is the latest of several public statements that have raised questions since his wife was arrested in the fatal shooting of three faculty members last week at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.</p>

<p>After the shooting rampage, Anderson initially said he had no idea that Bishop had a gun, but on Tuesday Anderson said that not only did he know she had a gun, but that he had accompanied her to a shooting range in recent weeks.</p>

<p>Also, he initially told one reporter that he had spoken with his wife in a telephone call from jail and then told another he had not spoken with her at all. He told the Huntsville Times earlier this week that he did not have a copy of the ATF letter because Huntsville police seized it after the shootings.</p>

<p>[Claim</a> that Bishop was cleared in bomb probe refuted - The Boston Globe](<a href=“http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/02/19/claim_that_bishop_was_cleared_in_bomb_probe_refuted/]Claim”>http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/02/19/claim_that_bishop_was_cleared_in_bomb_probe_refuted/)</p>

<p>And the irony at the end of the article:</p>

<p>On Wednesday, he blamed the news media for discrepancies in his statements.</p>

<p>“That’s why they say, don’t say anything to anybody,’’ he said. “Everything I say has been held against us. . . . Things have come back wrong.’’</p>

<p>This morning, an interview with Anderson is scheduled to air on “Good Morning America.’’</p>

865

<p>I really don’t understand why Anderson is talking to the press, period. There seems to be a serious lack of common sense.</p>

<p>And, this may be a surprise to Anderson and a few others, but nobody is forced to try to land a tenured university position. It isn’t slavery.</p>

866

<p>As I wrote earlier, Anderson sounds as batty as his wife, though in a different way. He has known all the instances of violent behavior of his wife since her killing her brother and has spent a lifetime explaining them away to himself and to the rest of the world.
It’s “us against the world.”</p>

867

<p>Maybe he wants to set up an insanity defense for himself.</p>

<p>I’ve seen lists of people giving accounts after automobile crashes and they can be very funny. The person is somewhat in shock and just says what comes to mind; even if it doesn’t make sense.</p>

868

<p>absolute speculation: I can imagine he was totally controlled by her at home and basically just did what he was told. It will be awhile before he realizes he is free from her.
He will need a job with health benefits pretty soon. Good luck with that.</p>

869

<p>^^^^</p>

<p>I think he realizes that. I think he’s trying to send the message that he’s open to a book deal. If he has any brains at all, he’s got to realize that he can’t do anything for Amy at this point; all he can do is make a life for his kids and him. That will require him to become a real moneymaker.</p>

870

<p>Somehow, what her attorney is doing is no surprise. That’s the only defense that I think would give her a chance of avoiding getting the death penalty.</p>

<p>“An Alabama college professor accused of killing three colleagues during a faculty meeting is likely insane says her attorney. Roy W. Miller, the court-appointed attorney for Amy Bishop, also said that Bishop does not remember the shooting. He said that she’s been very cogent in jail “She gets at issue with people that she doesn’t need to and obsesses on it. She won’t shake it off, and it’s really (things of) no great consequence.” He thinks she may be paranoid schizophrenic. The chief prosecutor in the case said he would not oppose a mental evaluation.”</p>

<p>[Amy</a> Bishop likely insane says her attorney | Gather](<a href=“http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474978056265&grpId=3659174697244816]Amy”>http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474978056265&grpId=3659174697244816)</p>

871

<p>Mr. Anderson loves Bishop and he is in shock. He’s got four traumatized kids and he is probably overwhelmed right now. He will have no support from the community; so I hope relatives are helping out. Nothing he says or does would surprise me at this point! I don’t think he is capable of acting in a rational way.</p>

872

<p>“I usually think of these things as really ‘hot’ button situations with exploding emotions. And, in this case, it’s the chilling calmness of the whole thing which I find even more disturbing, in this immense tragedy.” poetgrl</p>

<p>Actually, if you have read case studies of these kinds of murders, the usual scenario is that the person is cold and emotionless. People who are quick to get angry, so-called hot tempered, are people who will jump out of car ithcing for a fight with someone who just stole their parking space. THey don’t take down their license plate number, trace it, and then get them later. They won’t be angry later. AMy Bishop seems to have had a plethora of anger and resentment. Some of the things she did are more indicative of a quick to anger response like the IHOP incident. But most of the related stories were more devious and planned attacks including the slaughter at UAH. </p>

<p>Oh and in regards to some previous posters who find the accident scenario of her brother’s death completely plausible, even if that was so, in all jurisdictions where I have lived, police detain shooting suspects and possibly even arrest them until a grand jury or further prosecutorial review. It is not the police role to make whether a shooting is justified or accidental. I have read plenty of accoutns of teens getting ahold of a gun and actual accidental firings which still had a lot more police involvement than this case had.</p>

873

<p>“Mr. Anderson loves Bishop and he is in shock. He’s got four traumatized kids and he is probably overwhelmed right now. He will have no support from the community; so I hope relatives are helping out. Nothing he says or does would surprise me at this point! I don’t think he is capable of acting in a rational way.”</p>

<p>Given what has been posted by a variety of people about his wife’s personality, I will be very surprised if Mr. Anderson doesn’t have some extensive mental health issues of his own. People who are well balanced usually don’t fall in love with the type of person that his wife has been described as being for her entire life.</p>

<p>It’s interesting to me that the newspapers have contained little info about Mr. Anderson except for his behavior now in media interviews. I’m very curious about what neighbors and others would say about him.</p>

<p>I wonder what their children are like, and who will end up rearing them.</p>

874

<p>*Somehow, what her attorney is doing is no surprise. That’s the only defense that I think would give her a chance of avoiding getting the death penalty.</p>

<p>“An Alabama college professor accused of killing three colleagues during a faculty meeting is likely insane says her attorney. Roy W. Miller, the court-appointed attorney for Amy Bishop, also said that Bishop does not remember the shooting. He said that she’s been very cogent in jail “She gets at issue with people that she doesn’t need to and obsesses on it. She won’t shake it off, and it’s really (things of) no great consequence.” He thinks she may be paranoid schizophrenic. The chief prosecutor in the case said he would not oppose a mental evaluation.”*</p>

<p>I think the chief prosecutor would really like her to be ruled insane.</p>

875

<p>[Report:</a> Amy Bishop’s lawyer planning insanity defense - BostonHerald.com](<a href=“http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/20100219lawyer_amy_bishop_likely_insane/srvc=home&position=0]Report:”>http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/20100219lawyer_amy_bishop_likely_insane/srvc=home&position=0)</p>

876

<p>MiliatryMom-- I’m sure you are right. But, for whatever reason, it just stays with me, the coldness of it all, and I find that very frightening.</p>

<p>I have to assume that legal insanity for the purposes of the justice system is different from just “mental illness.” Amy Bishop seems to have been able to know that what she was doing was wrong. I would assume the knowledge that something is wrong is enough to try someone for these murders. I can’t imagine she would be seen as not responsible for her crimes. I could be wrong, though.</p>

877

<p>“I think the chief prosecutor would really like her to be ruled insane.”</p>

<p>Why do you say that? Just curious.</p>

878

<p>One of the kids is already a student at UAH, according to the Good Morning America interview.</p>

879

<p>Amy Bishop, husband listed teens on research paper
By Laurel J. Sweet and Ira Kantor
Friday, February 19, 2010 - Added 11h ago</p>

<p>Amy Bishop and her husband gave top billing to their three teenage daughters in the author credits of a paper they published last May in the International Journal of General Medicine on the impact of antidepressants on motor function.</p>

<p>The youngest of the teens is 14. The oldest, 18-year-old Lily Bishop Anderson, is a genetics student at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, where Bishop, a $63,000-per-year biology professor three months from being canned, is alleged to have slaughtered three colleagues and wounded three others in a rampage shooting one week ago today.</p>

<p>Bishop’s court-appointed attorney, Roy Miller, was expected to hold his first press conference on the case this morning.</p>

<p>More:</p>

<p>[Amy</a> Bishop, husband listed teens on research paper - BostonHerald.com](<a href=“http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1233888]Amy”>http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1233888)</p>

880

<p>UAH shooting suspect Amy Bishop tells court she’s broke but paid for Huntsville home
By Lee Roop
February 19, 2010, 6:00AM</p>

<p>HUNTSVILLE, AL - To get a court-appointed lawyer, UAH shooting suspect Dr. Amy Bishop swore on an affidavit that she had no assets, but records show she and her husband paid $190,000 cash for their south Huntsville home.</p>

<p>Bishop also swore she had no job, but she remains on the UAH payroll in a $66,000-a-year position as an assistant professor. The contract ends in May if UAH doesn’t fire her first, and the school is exploring its options.</p>

<p>Based on the affidavit, District Judge Ruth Ann Hall appointed Huntsville attorney Roy Miller on Wednesday to represent Bishop. Miller met late Wednesday afternoon with Jim Anderson, Bishop’s husband.</p>

<p>More:
<a href=“http://blog.al.com/breaking/2010/02/uah_shooting_suspect_amy_bisho.html[/url]”>UAH shooting suspect Amy Bishop tells court she's broke but paid for Huntsville home - al.com;