On October 23, 1989, Charles Stuart and his pregnant wife, Carol DiMaiti Stuart, were shot after leaving a birthing class at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston’s Mission Hill neighborhood. Stuart reported a carjacking by a Black man who allegedly forced his way into the car, robbed them, and shot both; Carol, seven months pregnant, was hit in the head and later died in the early hours of October 24, 1989. Doctors performed an emergency Caesarean section; the infant, Christopher DiMaiti Stuart, was born two months premature, suffered oxygen deprivation, and died after seventeen days in the intensive care unit.

The initial account set off a massive manhunt and intensified stop-and-frisk policing in Mission Hill, and led police to focus on several Black men as suspects. In January 1990 Charles Stuart’s brother, Matthew, told police the carjacking story had been fabricated and said Charles had shot his wife and then himself to cover up the murder; Matthew admitted helping dispose of a bag said to contain the weapon and Carol’s belongings. Charles Stuart later died after driving to the Tobin Bridge and jumping on January 4, 1990.

Does anyone have documents, local memory, or insight about the case’s impact on Boston policing and community relations at the time?