Relatives of two professors shot and killed during a faculty meeting at the University of Alabama in Huntsville last year filed a lawsuit Friday claiming school administrators’ failure to follow safety rules contributed to the mass slaying.
The lawsuits, filed in state court in Huntsville by survivors of Maria Ragland Davis and Adriel D. Johnson Sr., contend UAH officials knew that Amy Bishop, the professor charged in the killings, was mentally unstable yet didn’t take steps that could have prevented the slayings.
Aside from Bishop and her husband, James, the suit names UAH Provost Vistasp M. Karbhari, who also serves as executive vice president for academics.
The university had no immediate comment on the suit, the second one filed over the shooting.
Roy Miller, an attorney for Bishop, has said she will likely use an insanity defense. She is jailed without bond in the killings.
“The lawsuit does not come as any surprise. It’s to be expected,” he said.
Davis, Johnson and Gopi K. Podila were killed when gunfire erupted during a biology department faculty meeting last Feb. 12. Three other people were shot, two critically, but survived.
