In spring 1993 a series of random shootings terrorized Mount Pleasant and Columbia Heights in Washington, D.C., attributed to a perpetrator dubbed the Shotgun Stalker. On the evening of March 23, Elizabeth Bessie Hutson, 28, was walking her dogs in an alley near Park Road in Mount Pleasant when she was shot and killed. Her death convinced investigators the attacks were random rather than gang-related.

The shootings continued for weeks. On April 19, 1993, police stopped a driver whose car was being driven erratically; the driver, identified as James Swann Jr., was found to have the shotgun used in the attacks and was arrested and charged with the murders and assaults. After psychiatric evaluation he was found to have paranoid schizophrenia and was later found not guilty by reason of insanity and committed to St. Elizabeths Hospital.

Anyone who knew Bessie Hutson or has information about her last evening is asked to come forward.