James Edward Swann Jr. The Shotgun Stalker (born 1964), is an African-American

serial killer A serial killer (also called a serial murderer) is a person who murders three or more people,An offender can be anyone: * * * * * (This source only requires two people) with the killings taking place over a significant period of time in separat ...

whose random drive-by shotgun shootings in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

in 1993 earned him his nickname in the press. Swann was living in the

Iselin Iselin may refer to: People with the family name * Adrian G Iselin (1818–1905), American banker, businessman & millionaire * Charles Oliver Iselin (1854–1932), American banker and yachtsman * Columbus O'Donnell Iselin (1904–1971), American oc ...

section of

Woodbridge Township, New Jersey Woodbridge Township is a township in northern Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The township is a regional hub of transportation and commerce for central New Jersey and a major bedroom suburb of New York City, within the New ...

before the attacks. He has been confined to St. Elizabeths Hospital since 1994 as a forensic patient since he was found not guilty by reason of insanity. His request for a furlough in 2011 was denied.

Murders

Swann drove to Washington to carry out the attacks, which took place in the Mount Pleasant and Columbia Heights neighborhoods. Each of the attacks followed a standard format: Swann would slow his car down next to a pedestrian and fire a 20-gauge shotgun at the target before driving away. Swann killed four people and injured five in 14 attacks before he was apprehended by the Metropolitan Police on April 19, 1993.

In custody

Swann was found

not guilty by reason of insanity Not or NOT may also refer to: Language * Not, the general declarative form of "no", indicating a negation of a related statement that usually precedes * ... Not!, a grammatical construction used as a contradiction, popularized in the early 1990 ...

and confined to Saint Elizabeths Hospital. He claimed to have been driven to the killings by voices in his head, including that of the ghost of

Malcolm X Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little, later el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) was an African American revolutionary, Islam in the United States, Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figur ...

, who told him to kill people in

Northwest Washington Northwest (NW or N.W.) is the northwestern quadrant of Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States, and is located north of the National Mall and west of North Capitol Street. It is the largest of the four quadrants of the city (NW, NE, S ...

—the "

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' political freedom, freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and ...

side of town"—because they had been responsible for the civil rights leader's assassination in 1965. In 2011, Swann applied for a 12-hour furlough from the psychiatric hospital where he has been committed in order to visit his father. Such a visit was to be under his father's supervision. Witnesses for Swann noted that he had earned an associate degree in Computer Science while incarcerated. A psychologist testifying on his behalf said that he had reviewed Swann's records, which showed that Swann "had not had a violent episode at the hospital since 2003, and his aggression with his

psychosis In psychopathology, psychosis is a condition in which a person is unable to distinguish, in their experience of life, between what is and is not real. Examples of psychotic symptoms are delusions, hallucinations, and disorganized or inco ...

was gone." This psychologist felt that Swann has a "low risk" of violence. But Swann was still suffering from

hallucination A hallucination is a perception in the absence of an external stimulus that has the compelling sense of reality. They are distinguishable from several related phenomena, such as dreaming ( REM sleep), which does not involve wakefulness; pse ...

s as recently as 2008. According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Colleen Kennedy, who opposed the furlough, Swann's father had given him a t-shirt with the phrase "Thrill to Kill" emblazoned on it, which Swann enjoyed wearing. The request for a furlough was denied.

References

1964 births 20th-century African-American people Crimes in Washington, D.C. Drive-by shootings Living people People acquitted by reason of insanity People from Woodbridge Township, New Jersey People with schizophrenia {{crime-bio-stub Serial killers from Washington, D.C.

Murders

In custody

See also

References