Alabama Shooting

Close-Knit Faculty Tries to Move On

After doctor charged with murders.

On Friday, Dr. Amy Bishop allegedly murdered three colleagues and seriously wounded two others at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Among the dead was Dr. Gopi Podila, the head of the biology department, the father of two teenage daughters, and a leader of Huntsville’s Indian community, where he arranged performances and choreographed traditional dances. Not only will the biology department be missing its leader, but also its administrator, who is in the hospital in critical condition. Another of the dead, Dr. Adriel Johnson, had two sons in college and a third in high school, while the third murdered victim, Dr. Maria Ragland Davis had three stepchildren. Officials spent Monday investigating Bishop’s past—including a 1986 case where she killed her brother with a shotgun and which was ruled accidental.