Skip to main content
Case

Roman Ducksworth, Jr.

Overview

On April 9, 1962, Corporal Roman Ducksworth, Jr., the African-American victim, was shot and killed by Taylorsville, Mississippi, Police Department (TPD) Officer William Kelly, the subject.  The victim, a 30-year-old military policeman, had taken a number of buses from his post in Fort Richie, Maryland, to Taylorsville, on emergency leave to be with his wife and their newborn child.  The victim was sleeping as the bus he had boarded in Jackson pulled into Taylorsville.  According to witness XXXX, the bus driver, XXXX, summoned the subject when he was unable to wake the victim.  At that point, Kelly boarded the bus and, according to XXXX, began slapping the victim to wake him and then escorted him off the bus.  The victim struck Kelly and Kelly responded by hitting the victim on the head repeatedly with a blackjack.  The subject then fired a shot into the ground and then a second shot into the victim’s heart.


Incident Date
Case Name
Roman Ducksworth, Jr.
Topics
FOIA
Industry Code(s)
  • None
Updated October 6, 2016