Alabama Suspect Fatally Shot Brother 24 Years Ago

Current police chief hints at 'coverup'
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 13, 2010 1:46 PM CST
Updated Feb 13, 2010 3:50 PM CST
Alabama Suspect Fatally Shot Brother 24 Years Ago
Amy Bishop is detained by Huntsville, Ala. police, Friday, Feb 12, 2010, on the University of Alabama in Huntsville campus in Huntsville, Ala.   (AP Photo/Huntsville Times, Bob Gathany)

The Alabama professor charged with killing three fellow professors fatally shot her younger brother 24 years ago. Amy Bishop faced no charges, however, because the police chief in Braintree, Massachusetts, deemed the 1986 shooting accidental. In a bizarre twist, the current chief said today the shooting appeared to be deliberate and came during an argument. "I don't want to use the word 'coverup' ... but this does not look good," said Paul Frazier.

Based on the recollection of an arresting officer, Frazier said Bishop, then 20, shot her 18-year-old brother three times, then ran from the house and attempted a carjacking, the Boston Globe reports. Police arrested her at gunpoint and were booking her when the former chief ordered a halt to the process and released her to her mother. He later said the gun went off accidentally when she was learning to unload it. The case records have been missing since at least 1988. "There was no coverup," the former chief, now 87, insisted.
(More Amy Bishop stories.)

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