Silas Caston

On March 1, 1964, Silas Caston, the 19-year-old African-American victim, was shot and killed by Hinds County, Mississippi, Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) Deputy Herbert Hoover Sullivan, the subject, in Jackson, Mississippi.  According to a contemporaneous article in the Jackson Clarion Ledger, the shooting occurred when HCSO deputies responded to a report of shots fired.  On arrival, deputies saw two men fleeing the scene.  Sullivan (who was not identified in the article) chased the victim into a café where, according to XXXXXXXX, the victim turned “as if to attack the deputy.”  At that point, Sullivan, who “had no way of knowing” that the victim was unarmed, shot him in the stomach.  The victim died later that night at University Hospital.