Home >  Local News >  Neighborhoods

Tuesday, April 23, 2002

By Ernie Hoffman, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

A teen-ager charged with helping a Hempfield friend kill his older brother has told authorities that the pair also plotted to kill the friend's parents.

	Robert M. Laskowski,15, was arraigned on charges including first-degree murder yesterday before Hempfield District Justice James Falcon. (V.W.H.C. Campbell Jr., Post-Gazette)

Robert M. Laskowski, 15, was charged as an adult yesterday with first-degree murder, criminal homicide and criminal conspiracy in the beating death of 18-year-old Adam Bishop.

Investigators said Bishop was the first of three intended victims. They said his parents, Jeff and Karen Bishop, also were marked for death by their younger son, Ian.

Ian Bishop, 14, who was arrested early Saturday morning, has already been charged with fatally beating his brother with a hammer Friday afternoon.

Adam Bishop's bludgeoned body was found in a bathroom of the family home. Nearby were a bloody hammer and a wooden club.

Laskowski sat silently and showed no emotion during his arraignment yesterday before Hempfield District Justice James Falcon. His parents sat and watched, then refused to talk to reporters.

Laskowski told police that he and Ian Bishop plotted last week to kill Adam Bishop and the Bishops' parents. But no explanation was given in an affidavit of probable cause in court documents.

Authorities would not speculate on a motive for the killing.

District Attorney John W. Peck and state police Lt. Robert Weaver said investigators were looking into several scenarios that may have led to the killing.

Police said Laskowski told them that Ian Bishop repeatedly beat his older brother on the head with a claw hammer.

Laskowski told police that he had a club in his hand and was ready to strike Adam Bishop with it, but he never did.

Laskowski said he then helped Ian place the victim's body in a bathtub.

And when his brother seemed to be holding on to life too long, police said, Ian called a friend, Matthew Bumbaugh, and asked him to bring a gun to the house to help finish off his older brother.

Joe Roskar, 19, consoles two young women who watched yesterday as Robert Laskowski, 15, went into his arraignment. The young women, who asked not to be identified except for their first names, Mary and Nicole, said they were classmates of Adam Bishop, who was beaten to death on Friday. (V.W.H. Campbell Jr., Post-Gazette)

But instead of bringing a gun, Bumbaugh brought his mother, Teri L. Bumbaugh, to the Bishop house, police said.

While the Bumbaughs drove to the Bishop home, Ian told Matthew Bumbaugh over a cell phone that he had struck his brother with a hammer, police said.

When they arrived, the Bumbaughs found Laskowski at the front door and Ian Bishop, covered with blood, walking up the stairs, calmly drinking milk from a gallon jug, police said.

The second floor ceiling, walls and floors were splattered with blood and the Bumbaughs found Adam lying face down in the bathtub with the shower running.

"Shut the water off or your brother will drown," Teri Bumbaugh told Ian, according the affidavit, and he replied: "Maybe that would be good."

At that point, Teri Bumbaugh ran outside, yelling for help. And Ian Bishop went into his bedroom where he changed clothes and then ran. He was arrested later that night.

Wayne Doyle, superintendent of Hempfield School District, said yesterday that crises counselors were in the middle and high schools to offer assistance to any student who needed it.

"Some students certainly took advantage of it and certainly were in need of assistance," said Doyle. More students at the high school, where Adam was a student, went to see the counselors. Only "a handful" talked to counselors at the middle school, where Ian Bishop was a student last year.

Students will be allowed to leave school to attend funeral services if necessary, he said. Counseling services will be available today "and as long as they're needed," added Doyle.

Doyle, who said he is the public information officer for the district, said he did not have any information on the extracurricular activities of the Bishop boys. He did say that the boys apparently were never in serious trouble in the school "because neither one was ever in my office."

Two girls, seniors at Hempfield Area High School who said they were friends of the Bishop boys told reporters they and many of their classmates were shocked by the slaying.

The two, who asked that their last names not be used, said the Bishop brothers were friends and they never saw the boys fight.

"Adam always took his brother everywhere," one said..

But she also said Ian did not seem to be his usual self at school Friday morning. "He was just being quiet. It's just not like him," she said.

"He didn't seem happy at all," Nicole said.

Mary said the Bishops were part of their group of friends and, despite the age difference, Ian was accepted by the group. "He was one of our best friends," she said.

Adam Bishop, who was to graduate this year, used to play soccer in school and was a talented pianist, the girls said. His brother had been a member of the track team.

"We have no idea what happened," one of them said.

Mary said the killing caused her to lose a lot of sleep the past few days and yesterday she took advantage of special counseling that was offered in school.

Bishop and Laskowski are being held without bail in the Westmoreland County Prison.

Preliminary hearings for both will be held before Falcon.