A group of Mississippi cops who pleaded guilty to torturing Black men called themselves the 'Goon Squad' because they were willing to secretly use excessive force

• Six Mississippi police officers pleaded guilty to 16 felonies for the torture of two Black men.
• The officers sexually assaulted the two men before shooting one of them in the mouth.

Six former police officers in Mississippi who pleaded guilty to torturing two black men were part of a group that called itself the "goon squad."

The officers — Brett McAlpin, Jeffrey Middleton, Christian Dedmon, Hunter Elward, Daniel Opdyke, and Joshua Hartfield — pleaded guilty to 16 different felonies in federal court on Thursday, according to the Department of Justice.

According to a criminal complaint, McAlpin received a complaint on Jan. 24 from one of his white neighbors in Rankin County that "suspicious" Black men were staying at a property nearby.

McAlpin contacted Dedmon and asked him to "take care of it," which prompted Dedmon to contact a group of officers that called itself the "Goon Squad" because of "their willingness to use excessive force and not report it," the document says.

Dedmon warned the men to "work easy" in case of cameras, meaning to knock on the door rather than break it down, the complaint says. Dedmon also told the men, "no bad mugshots," which means they had the greenlight to use excessive force on parts of the body not captured in a mugshot.

Later that day, the officers barged into the home of Michael Jenkins, 32, and Eddie Terrell Parker, 35. They didn't have a warrant and they entered through a carport door because the front door had a security camera, the complaint says. The officers handcuffed both men and tased them "several times" before Dedmon shot his gun into the wall and demanded they tell him "where the drugs" were.

While Jenkins and Parker insisted they did not have drugs, the officers began calling the men racial slurs and told them to "stay out of Rankin County" and to "go back to their side." Rankin County is the suburbs of Jackson and is 74% white. Hinds County, where Jackson is located, is 72% Black, according to the US Census.

While searching the home, Opdyke found a dildo, affixed it to the end of a BB gun, and then shoved it into the men's mouths, the complaint says. Dedmon also threatened to penetrate the men with the dildo and slapped them with it.

After the assault, Elward held the men down while Dedmon poured chocolate syrup, milk, alcohol, and cooking grease on them. Officers then forced the men to shower and took turns tasing them to see whose Taser was stronger, charging their Tasers a total of 17 times.

Outside the house, Elward then removed a bullet from his gun, forced Jenkins onto his knees, and shot into his mouth, but the unloaded gun did not fire, the document says. Elward then put his gun in Jenkins's mouth again intending to dry fire a second time, but the gun discharged and broke his jaw.

Among the charges against the officers were civil rights conspiracy, deprivation of rights under color of law, discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence, conspiracy to obstruct justice, and obstruction of justice, according to a release.

Trent Walker, an attorney for Jenkins and Parker, said that the men "feel like they are getting justice," at a press conference Thursday.

"There were a lot of naysayers," Walker said according to Mississippi Today. "This proves there is justice in Mississippi, even in Rankin County with its long history of police violence."

Rankin County has a history of police violence

Almost all of the officers involved in the attack were employed by the Rankin County Sheriff's Department. Hartfield, who was a narcotics investigator, worked for the Richland Police Department.

At least five people died in the custody of the Rankin Sheriff's Department during an 8-month period in 2021. Insider sued the sheriff's department for records related to three of those deaths.

At least one of the officers who pleaded guilty on Thursday, Hunter Elward, was also involved in one of the 2021 deaths. Elward tased and beat Damien Cameron before he died.

In an incident report obtained by Insider, Elward wrote that he punched Cameron at least three times and tased him three times.

Monica Lee, Cameron's mother, told Insider that deputies knelt her son's back for more than 15 minutes even as he complained that he could not breathe. The Mississippi state medical examiner found Cameron's cause of death inconclusive, according to Lee.

A Mississippi grand jury declined to press charges against Elward and other deputies involved in the beating due to insufficient evidence in October 2022.

Monica Lee told Insider that she didn't understand the jury's decision because the evidence of the beating was "in his face."

"I didn't get it," Lee said.

"I don't know if they have pictures of my son or what," Lee added.

In a statement provided to Insider, Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey said the sheriff's department fully cooperated with the investigation and that the five former deputies who pleaded guilty "lied to me the night of the incident."