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Friday, November 13, 2026Nov 13

Grand jury examines ’86 killing by Alabama professor

By DENISE LAVOIE

AP Legal Affairs Writer

BOSTON – A grand jury has been convened in Massachusetts to hear evidence in the 1986 shooting death of the brother of a former university professor accused in Alabama of killing three colleagues.

Retired Braintree police chief John Polio told The Associated Press on Friday that he and his wife, who worked in an administrative position in the police department, have been subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury investigating the case against Amy Bishop in Norfolk Superior Court next week. A spokesman for the Norfolk district attorney’s office wouldn’t comment.

Bishop, who lived with her family in Braintree, a Boston suburb, shot her brother dead in their home. The death of Seth Bishop, 18, originally was ruled an accident. But authorities began investigating the case again after Amy Bishop was charged in a Feb. 12 rampage at the University of Alabama-Huntsville, where she was a biology professor. Three of Bishop’s colleagues died.