'Shotgun Stalker' seeks release to see father

The D.C. serial killer dubbed “The Shotgun Stalker” is asking a D.C. judge for a temporary release so he can spend a day with his father. Years before the “D.C. Sniper” shootings, residents of Northwest Washington had been terrorized by a shotgun-wielding predator who slowly drove up on his victims and blasted them with a 20-gauge shotgun.

In the winter and spring of 1993, James E. Swann Jr. killed four people and injured five others in 14 attacks. Most of the attacks came in the Mount Pleasant and Columbia Heights neighborhoods.