HUNTSVILLE, Ala. - The University of Alabama-Huntsville biology professor accused of killing three colleagues during a campus faculty meeting fatally shot her brother in an apparent accident in Massachusetts more than two decades ago, The Boston Globe reported Saturday.

Amy Bishop shot her 18-year-old brother, Seth M. Bishop, an accomplished violinist who had won a number of science awards, on Dec. 6, 1986, Braintree Police Chief Paul Frazier confirmed to the newspaper.

Bishop had asked her mother in the presence of her brother how to unload a round from the chamber of a 12-gauge shotgun, according to a Globe story at the time. John Polio, then-chief of police, told the Globe that while Amy Bishop was handling the weapon, it fired, wounding Seth Bishop in the abdomen. He was pronounced dead at a hospital 46 minutes after the shooting.