By Thomas Bartlett and Robin Wilson

A Massachusetts grand jury indicted Amy Bishop on Wednesday on a charge of first-degree murder in the 1986 shooting death of her 18-year-old brother, an incident that authorities dismissed at the time as an accident. The case was reopened after Ms. Bishop allegedly shot to death three of her colleagues at the University of Alabama at Huntsville during a faculty meeting four months ago.

In 1986, Ms. Bishop, who was then 21, said that she accidentally shot her brother, Seth Bishop, with their father's shotgun while attempting to unload it. Following the Alabama shootings, Ms. Bishop's husband, James Anderson, also called the 1986 shooting an accident. The two were dating at the time, and he said Ms. Bishop "did get some counseling" afterward.

But the details that have emerged about the Massachusetts shooting—including the charge that Ms. Bishop threatened others with the shotgun, among them a police officer, and tried to commandeer a car—raised doubts about the thoroughness of the original investigation.

One allegation that surfaced is that Judith Bishop, Amy Bishop's mother, spoke to the police chief in Braintree, Mass., on her daughter's behalf after the shooting. In an interview with The Chronicle on Wednesday, the police chief, John V. Polio, denied having met with Judith Bishop after the incident and said that there was no cover-up of the alleged crime. Mr. Polio, who is 87, worried that witnesses who testified in front of the grand jury may have made him out to be "the sacrificial lamb."

But he said he has no regrets about his own handling of the matter, though there are "questions and discrepancies" involving the actions of other people connected to the investigation. "The people that can answer them are deceased," he said. "I'm the only one standing."

Mr. Polio said he was particularly bothered by the suggestion that if police had handled the case differently "then the people in Alabama wouldn't have died."

William R. Keating, the local district attorney in Massachusetts who called for the inquest, told The Boston Globe in February that he found Mr. Polio's assertions that he did not know some of the key details about the case that were in police reports "astounding."

Mr. Keating could not be reached for comment late Wednesday. He told the Associated Press that "jobs weren't done, responsibilities weren't met, and justice wasn't served."

Robert L. Broussard, the district attorney in Huntsville, Ala., said Ms. Bishop would first face the charges over the slayings at the university there before possibly being tried in Massachusetts. "We would not give her up," he said.

Mr. Broussard said that while normally charges in another state against a defendant would have little bearing, in Ms. Bishop's case the grand jury indictment may be a boon for the prosecution. That's because, he said, it would serve to undercut a possible "mental defense" that Ms. Bishop's lawyer has suggested will be used when the case goes to trial. "It's not any kind of game-changer, but it likely helps us," Mr. Broussard said.

Mr. Broussard said his office will probably finish its review of the evidence in the next three to six months, at which time the case will be brought before a grand jury.

Debra M. Moriarity, a professor of biochemistry who worked with Ms. Bishop at the university and was in the meeting room when Ms. Bishop opened fire in February, said faculty members heard the news about the Massachusetts indictment on Wednesday as they were interviewing candidates to replace their dead colleagues.

Ms. Moriarity, who is now interim chair of the university's department of biological sciences, said people were wondering what impact the indictment will have on the Huntsville case—but she said no one knew for sure. "In general, I think everybody said, Well, we're glad the indictment happened," said Ms. Moriarity, "but it doesn't change anything here. I don't think we can be any more sad."

She added: "Do we wish they had gotten it right the first time? Absolutely. But wasting a lot of emotion on it isn't going to get us anywhere."

Ms. Moriarity said the department interviewed two visiting professors on Wednesday. Joseph G. Leahy, who was critically wounded by Ms. Bishop and hasn't returned to work full-time, was there to take part in the interviews.

During the shootings at Huntsville, it was Ms. Moriarity who tried to talk Ms. Bishop into stopping the rampage, and it was Ms. Moriarity who eventually pushed her out of the room when the gun apparently ran out of bullets.