Thaddeus Dumas, a 27-year-old African American father, was found dead from fatal gunshot wounds in the backyard of his Berkeley, Missouri, home on Thursday, August 24, 2017. The Major Case Squad of Greater St. Louis assisted the Berkeley Police Department in the investigation.

Dumas had previously been a plaintiff in a 2012 civil rights lawsuit that exposed violent incidents at the St. Louis City Workhouse; that prosecution of corrupt guards followed reports that he had been forced to fight while incarcerated. Authorities have not publicly tied that history to the 2017 killing.

No suspects have been publicly named and no arrests have been reported in connection with the fatal shooting.

If anyone saw activity near Dumas’s home on August 24, 2017, or has information about the case, please come forward.