Ala. Prof Shoved 'Shotgun in My Chest' in 1986

After killing her brother in 1986, alleged University of Alabama shooter Amy Bishop stormed a Massachusetts car dealership with a shotgun and demanded a getaway car. That’s the story of Tom Pettigrew, who was one of the employees. “I’m thinking it’s a BB gun,” he tells the Boston Herald. But no. “I open the door and she’s right there and we basically bumped into each other and I got a shotgun right in my chest!”

“And she’s like, ‘Hands up!’” Pettigrew continues. “And I’m like, ‘Yes ma’am.’” He recalls that she demanded a car because she said, “I got into a fight with my husband.” Pettigrew says police swarmed the dealership and arrested Bishop before she could make her getaway. She was later released for reasons that now appear dubious, and the city is looking into “deficits in its past record-keeping process.” Pettigrew is surprised he’s back in the spotlight. “For the last 23 years, it was just a cool story I could tell my friends.” (More Amy Bishop stories.)