Following their admission of guilt in a related federal civil rights complaint, six former Mississippi law enforcement officials entered guilty pleas in state court on Monday to charges tied to torturing two Black men in a racial attack.
The cops, all of whom are white, allegedly adopted the moniker “Goon Squad” due to their propensity for using excessive force and concealing their wrongdoing, including the attack that resulted in one victim, Michael Corey Jenkins, being shot in the mouth.
Jenkins and his companion Eddie Terrell Parker were detained and abused by the officers in January while they were inside a house without a warrant, using stun guns, a sex toy, and other devices. During a 90-minute torture session, the now-former cops allegedly instructed the men to “stop grabbing advantage of a white woman who resided there,” the prosecution claimed. This was revealed during the men’s hearing on Monday.
The officers allegedly used racial slurs against the two men throughout the incident, repeatedly shocked them with tasers, beat them with vibrators, spat chocolate and syrup in their faces, and then came up with a cover-up after a game of Russian Roulette went wrong and one of the victims was shot in the mouth.
In order to justify the shooting, the six cops planned to put drugs and a pistol on one of the males. They also made up the tale that Jenkins was shot because he resisted and reached for an officer’s gun.
All of the men entered guilty pleas as their explanations fell flat. On Monday, the prosecutor merely suggested concurrent sentences of five years in jail for the first accusation and five years for the second, meaning the defendants would be released after five years. On November 3, they will also be sentenced on federal charges.
Parker, one of the victims, remarked on the courthouse steps, “It’s been a long time coming.” “We aren’t making her fight in vain. We are battling for everyone. Justice was carried out.
Five former Rankin County sheriff’s deputies—Brett McAlpin, Hunter Elward, Christian Dedmon, Jeffrey Middleton, and Daniel Opdyke—as well as Joshua Hartfield, a police officer from the city of Richland, are among those who have admitted to committing crimes.
Elward acknowledged he attempted a “mock execution” that went wrong when he put a gun in Jenkins’ mouth and pressed the trigger.
Some locals referred to a police culture they claimed gave officers free reign to misuse their authority when the egregious police violence in Rankin County came to light.
Following an investigation by The Associated Press that connected some of the cops to at least four violent interactions with Black males since 2019 that resulted in two fatalities and another with serious injuries, civil rights charges were brought against them. In February, the Justice Department opened a civil rights investigation into the situation.
The majority-white suburbs of Rankin County have been one of many places where white people have fled from the state’s capital, Jackson, which has one of the greatest Black population densities of any significant American metropolis.
Jenkins and Parker were admonished by the police to “go back to Jackson or ‘their side’ of the Pearl River.” After the trial, a victim’s counsel stated that the guys had received death threats from locals despite not having lived in Mississippi.
According to court filings, Jenkins and Parker were singled out because a white neighbor had complained about two Black men staying at the house with a white woman.
Parker was a friend of the homeowner, Kristi Walley, since their youth. Parker was assisting with her care because she has been paraplegic since the age of 15.
“He is a gift. In a February interview, Walley remarked, “He’s been here every time I’ve needed him. When I was living here by myself, there were occasions when I was unsure about my next steps.
Due to his disabilities, Jenkins still struggles to speak. Before exiting his neck, the gunfire fractured his jaw and lacerated his tongue.
Jenkins declared, “As far as justice goes, I felt we were going to get it. But I had anticipated that it might take more time.
The chief of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, Kristen Clarke, claimed that the officers incited mistrust within the community they were intended to serve after they pled guilty to the federal charges. The abuse of power, according to Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, will not be accepted.