TRAGIC, AND REMARKABLE – AT 5:18 P.M. ET:  This is one of the most fascinating, and most tragic, stories we've seen recently.  And it underscores an important public-policy issue.

Most readers probably know by now of yesterday's shooting at the University of Alabama's Huntsville campus.  A faculty member is accused of shooting three professors dead, and wounding three others, allegedly in a dispute over tenure.  But there is a history, as Fox reports:

A University of Alabama professor accused of fatally shooting three colleagues at a faculty meeting this week shot her younger brother dead at their home in the Boston suburbs more than 20 years ago, but records of it are missing, police said Saturday.

Amy Bishop shot her brother in the chest in 1986, Braintree police Chief Paul Frazier said at a news conference. She fired at least three shots, hitting her brother once and hitting her bedroom wall, before police took her into custody at gunpoint, he said.

Before Bishop could be booked, the police chief back then told officers to release her to her mother, Frazier said.

The shooting of the brother, Seth Bishop, was logged as an accident, but detailed records of the shooting have disappeared, he said.

"The report's gone, removed from the files," he said.

He said people who worked for the police department then remember the shooting and he planned to meet with the district attorney over the possibility of launching a criminal investigation into the report's disappearance.

COMMENT:  The keeping of public records, and access to them, are major public-policy issues.  Many Americans don't realize what "missing" records can cover up, and how easy it is for corrupt officials – not that I'm implying that in this case – to make files vanish.

Also, records that can involve life-and-death issues are often barred from public view because of pressure by commercial interests, professional societies and the education establishment.  There have been many documented reports of physicians who get in trouble in one state simply going to another and setting up a practice because files are sealed.  The same with lawyers.  The same with teachers who've had to be removed from classrooms.  The same with violent offenders whose records are sealed because of age, although these criminals are still dangerous.

We'll follow this story because of its tragic implications.  A woman who allegedly killed her own brother by a direct gunshot to the chest more than 20 years ago was released, and all records are missing.  Now she allegedly murders three people by gunshot.  The college where she was employed had no way of knowing of the earlier incident.  We assume there will be a full investigation.

February 13, 2010