A neurobiologist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville is accused of killing three colleagues on Friday. She opened fire at a faculty meeting and also injured other faculty. The full story is still coming out and, as the New York Times put it in a headline, "Twists Multiply in Alabama Shooting Case." She fatally shot her brother 20-plus years ago and some question how the case was handled by the police. And she and her husband were questioned, though not charged, in a bombing incident at Harvard. The portrait being painted of shooter Amy Bishop is of a socially awkward and extroverted scientist with a tenuous grasp on reality. Many students and colleagues complained about her, although she also had her defenders. Few dispute that she was smart and talented. One source describes her as a far-left political extremist. But what of her religious views?
Well, we get a brief tease early in this Chronicle of Higher Education piece:
The couple, who met as undergraduates at Northeastern University more than two decades before, were planning to go out for coffee after the faculty meeting. It was to be a date, a chance to spend time together away from their four children. But before he could pick her up, she was apprehended by campus police officers, less than 15 minutes after the shootings.
Mr. Anderson talked to The Chronicle outside his home Sunday morning as he and his four children prepared to leave for church. He said his wife believed that her tenure denial had been caused, at least in part, by a miscommunication over whether two papers had been published in time to count toward her tenure bid. While some colleagues have said that she didn't get along well with other professors, Mr. Anderson called her "very personable." There had been no threats or hints of violence, he said.
The same thing happened in this New York Times piece on the matter:
Standing at his door after church on Sunday, Mr. Anderson confirmed the existence of the novel reported in The Globe, as well as two others his wife worked on in her spare time. The couple has four children, ranging from grade-school to college age. Mr. Anderson said that somewhere in his files he had a letter sent by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms after the bomb investigation, saying: "You are hereby cleared in this incident. You are no longer a subject of the investigation."
The novel refers to something the alleged shooter was working on about a woman who kills her brother but finds redemption through excellent work.
Anyway, as the reader who submitted the first story writes:
So, where do they go? What are their religious beliefs? Are they long-time members or just visitors? What about following up with the pastor? Colleagues on campus are interviewed, why not fellow churchgoers? Just some extra effort on this could have rounded out the story nicely.
I couldn't have said it better.