Carl Z. Silas, a 28-year-old African American father from Belleville, Illinois, was killed just before dawn on December 30, 2016, after deputies answered a report of a home invasion and shooting at an apartment in the 2900 block of West Boulevard in unincorporated east Belleville. Deputies found Silas inside the small apartment, dead from gunshot wounds; investigators immediately classified the death as a homicide. Two of his young children were asleep in the apartment during the shooting and were not physically injured.

Silas, known by the nicknames Mississippi and Wallie, worked jobs including shifts at the Belleville Boot Factory and Rally’s and is remembered by family and online memorials as a devoted, hardworking father. The Major Case Squad of Greater St. Louis opened MCS Report #632 that day, and the investigation focused on 20-year-old David E. Fields, who was charged with two counts of first-degree murder and one count of home invasion; bond was set at $2,000,000. The case generated wider scrutiny because Fields had been paroled to live with St. Clair County Circuit Judge Ronald R. Duebbert, and communications between the two became part of the record.

A jury in July 2018 was unable to reach a unanimous verdict and the case went to a second trial; on December 10, 2018, Fields was acquitted of the murder charge. The shooting left Silas’s family and community grieving a life cut short.