On the evening of April 13, 1975, a shooting spree in Wheaton, Maryland, ended the life of 52-year-old Connie L. Stanley, a Washington, D.C. area resident. The gunman, identified as Michael Edward Pearch, an unemployed carpenter from Silver Spring wearing military fatigues, opened fire near the Wheaton Plaza shopping mall and is reported to have targeted African American people while bypassing vehicles with white occupants.

Connie Stanley was shot and killed while sitting in a car on Georgia Avenue. Another woman in a nearby vehicle, Rosalyn Stanley, was wounded. Earlier at the mall entrance Pearch fatally shot 43-year-old John L. Sligh and wounded an additional person; he later wounded at least one more victim after firing into another car. Two police officers who had witnessed the shootings confronted Pearch; when he continued to fire, the officers shot and killed him at the scene.

The attacker was described by eyewitnesses as appearing to smile during the assaults and the investigation concluded the shootings were racially motivated. If anyone knew Connie Stanley or has information about her life or that night, please share what you know.