Two former Rankin County Sheriff’s Office deputies tied to the “Goon Squad” scandal were connected to fatal police uses of force against Black men in their Mississippi county years before the unlawful home raid in which two Black men were brutalized this year.
In 2019, both deputies were present when police fatally shot a man in Pelahatchie, Mississippi, and one deputy was involved in a 2021 death in which a man was asphyxiated during arrest, but both those uses of force were deemed justified by authorities. That pattern would change this year.
Hunter Elward, Christian Dedmon, three other ex-deputies, and one Richland police officer unlawfully entered the Braxton, Mississippi, home of Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker on Jan. 24.
Related: ‘Been Knowing These Men Almost a Lifetime’: Mississippi Activists Call for Sheriff Over ‘Goon Squad’ That Tortured Black Men to Step Down, Rejects Narrative That He Was Unaware of Abuse
None of the officers had a warrant for the men’s arrest. Both men were beaten, shocked, tortured and humiliated for more than an hour as the officers threatened the pair because they were living with a white woman.
The incident turned more heinous with Elward shooting Jenkins in the mouth and lacerating part of his tongue. On Aug. 3, all six officers pleaded guilty to federal charges, including excessive force, arising from this horrifying incident.
A lawsuit filed in 2021 reveals that Elward and Dedmon were present when police officers shot and killed a man named Pierre Woods in 2019.
The complaint filed by Vanessa Barrett and Dris Mitchell names both former deputies as defendants.
In February 2019, Pelahatchie police and Rankin County deputies responded to a call about shots fired at the Pelahatchie home where Woods was inside. Authorities said Woods fired at them from inside during a standoff that lasted more than an hour until police threw tear gas into the home.
“Although…
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