Accused Alabama Shooter Fought With Neighbors, Told Family She Was Stalked



VIDEO: New Insight Into Alabama Shooter


"I just don't want to alienate them," she told
















Amy Bishop Known as 'Odd Ball'










Many of her current students have praised her.











"Huntsville is not a very friendly community in certain specific areas," he said. "I have a gut feeling that she may have had a weapon for stalkers."

"I don't know if she would have shared that with [her husband] or not," said Anderson Sr. "It was an off the cuff remark to me about someone in her campus neighborhood she had to keep an out eye out for."

Anderson Sr., 71, said that his immediate worry was for the "safety of the family," not knowing who might be "revengeful."

When asked if she had personal issues, he said, "I think that's probably true," especially after she faced a prospect of unemployment after being rejected for tenure.

Whether that event alone could have triggered an act of violence is unlikely, say mental health experts.

But many psychiatric disorders can go undiagnosed for years, especially for those who lead insular lives.



Psychosis, Schizophrenia Can Cause Violence


Often people don't notice signs until more serious symptoms emerge.

"Brilliant scientists are supposed to be crazy," he told

John Nash, the Nobel-winning economist from Princeton, portrayed in "A Beautiful Mind," could be coherent in his field, even as he suffered from schizophrenia.

Anti-social personality disorders can also result behavior that is "incompatible with laws," like stealing or shooting, he said. And in narcissism, a person can display disregard for the feelings of others or seek self-aggrandizement and, like Bernie Madoff, can be "very charming."




"They don't have a conscience," said Frank Ochberg, a Michigan psychiatrist and founder of the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma.

"Look at a 3-year-old before their conscience is developed," he told "You want to escape bad consequences, and you don't have the internal mechanism to want to be good. If you do become angered or enraged, nothing inside of you is telling you that it's bad."

"There is the fear of getting caught, and then you get away with it and you harbor a sense that all these other people are crazy," said Ochberg. "There's a sense of entitlement."

Any of those psychiatric disorders could justify an insanity defense -- lacking the capacity to know right from wrong , according to both psychiatrists.

Ochberg, who is an expert in psychopathic predators and mass shootings, said female shooters are rare, but he admits, "mothers have done tragic things. They have killed their kids."

"In general being a woman and a mother makes you more in tune with your feelings, more nurturing and sympathetic," said Ochberg. "I believe men are from Mars and women are from Venus, but some women are from Mars."

-- This embed didnt make it to copy for story id = 9846839. -- This embed didnt make it to copy for story id = 9846839. -- This embed didnt make it to copy for story id = 9846839. -- This embed didnt make it to copy for story id = 9846839. -- This embed didnt make it to copy for story id = 9846839. -- This embed didnt make it to copy for story id = 9846839. -- This embed didnt make it to copy for story id = 9846839. -- This embed didnt make it to copy for story id = 9846839.
Join the Discussion
blog comments powered by Disqus
You Might Also Like...