Sammie Lee Davis, the husband of Maria Ragland Davis, a tenured Researcher who was killed, said his wife had described Professor Bishop as "not being able to deal with reality" and "not as good as she thought she was."
No pun intended but doesn't this sort of describe Pres. Obama?
He can't face reality about not being as good as he thought he was.
My heart goes out to families of the deceased.
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Alabama Professor Killed Brother In 1986
The University of Alabama-Huntsville biology professor accused of killing three colleagues fatally shot her brother in Massachusetts more than two decades ago, police said Saturday.
The revelation by Braintree, Mass., police that Amy Bishop shot her 18-year-old brother, Seth M. Bishop, in 1986 raised troubling questions over how that incident was handled.
The Boston Globe reported at the time that Amy Bishop had accidentally shot her brother. It quoted then-Braintree Police Chief John Polio as saying that Bishop had asked her mother, Judith, in the presence of her brother how to unload a round from the chamber of a 12-gauge shotgun when the weapon went off. Seth Bishop was struck in the abdomen and died at a hospital 46 minutes after the Dec. 6, 1986 shooting, according to the report.
"Every indication at this point in time leads us to believe it was an accidental shooting," Polio said at the time, according to the Globe.
But Braintree Police Chief Paul Frazier, at a news conference Saturday, offered a different account of the 1986 shooting, the Globe reported. Frazier said Amy Bishop fired three shots during an argument at the family home, then fled. She allegedly pointed the shotgun at a motorist before being arrested at gunpoint by officers.
Frazier said Bishop was being booked into jail when Polio, the police chief at the time, ordered her released her to her mother.
Frazier said he was basing his statements on the memories of one of his officers who had arrested Bishop. He said the records from the case have been missing since at least 1987.
"I don't want to use the word 'cover-up,' but this does not look good," he said.
In an interview at his home Saturday, Polio, 87, told the Globe: "There was no cover-up." He said he followed all department procedures and then-District Attorney William Delahunt's office conducted an inquiry and the decision was made not to file charges.
Delahunt, now a U.S. representative, could not immediately be reached for comment.
Tenure Dispute
Bishop, now 42, is accused of gunning down three of her colleagues Friday during a University of Alabama-Huntsville faculty meeting in an apparent tenure dispute. Three others were wounded — a rare instance of a woman being accused in a mass shooting.
Bishop, a Harvard-educated Neurobiologist who became an assistant professor at the school in 2003, was taken Friday night in handcuffs to the county jail, and said as she got into a police car: "It didn't happen. There's no way. ... They are still alive."
Bishop's husband was also detained for questioning but police did not call him a suspect.
On Friday, Bishop presided over her regular class before going to a biology faculty meeting where she sat quietly for about 30 or 40 minutes, one University of Alabama faculty member told the New York Times. Then, she pulled out a gun and began shooting, firing several rounds before her gun either jammed or ran out of bullets, said the faculty member, who had spoken to people that were in the room.
After she left the room, he said, the remaining people barred the door, fearing she would return. She was arrested outside the building without incident.
A really big Nerd
Students' assessments of Bishop varied. Some recalled an attentive, friendly teacher, while others said she was an odd woman who couldn't simplify difficult subjects for students.
Sammie Lee Davis, the husband of Maria Ragland Davis, a tenured researcher who was killed, said his wife had described Bishop as "not being able to deal with reality" and "not as good as she thought she was."
In a brief phone interview, Davis said he was told his wife was at a meeting to discuss the tenure status of another faculty member who got angry and started shooting.
Maria Ragland Davis was killed along with two other biology professors, Gopi K. Podila, chairman of the biological sciences department, and Adriel Johnson. Another two biology professors and a professor’s assistant were wounded and were at a Huntsville hospital in conditions ranging from fair to critical.
Bishop and her husband, Jim Anderson, had created a portable cell incubator, known as InQ, that was touted as a replacement for the old-fashioned petri dish and less expensive than its larger counterparts. The couple won $25,000 in 2007 to market the device.
Andrea Bennett, a sophomore majoring in nursing and an athlete at UAH, said a coach told her team that Bishop had been denied tenure, which the coach said may have led to the shooting.
Bennett described Bishop as being "very weird" and "a really big nerd."
"She's well-known on campus, but I wouldn't say she's a good teacher. I've heard a lot of complaints," Bennett said. "She's a genius, but she really just can't explain things."
Student Complaints
Amanda Tucker, a junior nursing major from Alabaster, Ala., had Bishop for anatomy class about a year ago. Tucker said a group of students complained to a dean about Bishop's classroom performance.
"When it came down to tests, and people asked her what was the best way to study, she'd just tell you, 'Read the book.' When the test came, there were just ridiculous questions. No one even knew what she was asking," Tucker said.
However, UAH student Andrew Cole was in Bishop's anatomy class Friday morning and said she seemed perfectly normal.
"She's understanding, and was concerned about students," he said. "I would have never thought it was her."
Nick Lawton, 25, described Bishop as funny and accommodating with students.
"She seemed like a nice enough professor," Lawton said.
The Huntsville campus has about 7,500 students in northern Alabama, not far from the Tennessee line. The university is known for its scientific and engineering programs and often works closely with NASA.
The space agency has a research center on the school's campus, where many scientists and engineers from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center perform Earth and space science research and development.
The university will remain closed next week, and all athletic events were canceled.
Female shooters rare
It's the second shooting in a week on an area campus. On Feb. 5, a 14-year-old student was killed in a middle school hallway in nearby Madison, allegedly by a fellow student.
Mass shootings are rarely carried out by women, said Dr. Park Dietz, who is president of Threat Assessment Group Inc., a Newport Beach, Calif.-based violence prevention firm.
A notable exception was a 1985 rampage at a Springfield, Pa., mall in which three people were killed. In June 1986, Sylvia Seegrist was deemed guilty but mentally ill on three counts of murder and seven counts of attempted murder in the shooting spree.
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