Amy Bishop

Nearly 24 years after Amy Bishop fatally shot her 18-year-old brother at their Braintree home in what was then declared an accident, prosecutors are presenting evidence to a grand jury that will decide whether criminal charges should be brought in the case, according to several people involved in the probe.

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The decision by Norfolk District Attorney William R. Keating to take the case to a grand jury signals that a judicial inquest, which ended recently and issued a sealed report to the prosecutor, found there was enough evidence to potentially warrant charges against Bishop, now 45.

Those familiar with the investigation did not say what charge was being pursued. But murder is the only charge on which the statute of limitations has not run out.

Keating would not comment yesterday on his decision to convene the grand jury to reexamine the 1986 killing, which Braintree police, State Police, and the Norfolk district attorney at the time concluded was a tragic family accident. That all changed when Bishop, a college professor, allegedly went on a shooting rampage in February at the University of Alabama Huntsville, killing three colleagues and wounding three others after being denied tenure.

Bishop’s mother, Judith, who told police decades ago that she was in the room when her 21-year-old daughter accidentally shot her 18-year-year-old son, Seth, with a shotgun, told the Globe last night: “I’m not well. My husband’s not well. I don’t know how I can face any of this.’’

She declined to answer any questions about the grand jury investigation, saying: “I can’t talk to you. I’m sorry.’’

Huntsville, Ala., attorney Roy W. Miller, who represents Bishop in the shootings there, said he could not talk about the grand jury proceedings in Massachusetts because he’s under a gag order in Alabama. But, he said: “It does not surprise me. We’ve got no control over whatever they do up there. We just have to live with whatever they do up there.’’

Former Braintree police chief John V. Polio, who ran the department when Bishop killed her brother, said he has received a subpoena to testify before the grand jury at Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham on Thursday.

He said it was “a good move’’ for Keating to call a grand jury to determine whether any criminal charges should be brought.

“I would think from the point of seeing justice done they want to clear the air to determine whether Amy Bishop did accidentally kill her brother or, who knows, the probability that it was more than just an accident,’’ Polio said in a telephone interview yesterday. “It’s a question that has to be answered or at least try to be answered, not that they’ll ever get the answer.’’’