'Goon Squad' Sentenced To Decades In Prison For The Torture Of Two Black Men In Mississippi

Justice has been served, seemingly.

Members of the self-described “Goon Squad” were finally sentenced to federal prison this last week after admitting that they, monstrously, “tortured and abused two Black men in a racist attack that left one of the victims seriously injured," according to NBC News.

The former deputy of Rankin County Sheriff’s Department, Daniel Ready Opdyke, was sentenced to prison for 17.5 years, while former deputy Christian Lee Dedmon was sentenced to 40 years in prison.

Along with four other law enforcement officers, both men pleaded guilty last year, which included civil rights conspiracy, deprivation of rights under color of law, discharge of a firearm amid a crime of violence, conspiracy to obstruct justice and obstruction of justice.

All this started with an interaction with Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker in January 2023, when six officers burst into their Rankin County home without a warrant, assaulting them with stun guns, while forcing them to ingest liquids, punching and kicking them and calling them racial obscenities.

Dedmon even fired his gun twice during the incident in an attempt to intimidate the victims, the Department of Justice said in a 2023 news release.

According to a statement read by his lawyer, Parker was “severely impacted” by what had transpired, and it “left a scar that will last forever.”

“I don’t know if I will ever sleep again at night,” Parker said in his statement. “I am in therapy now and in the future. My mind is all messed up and my emotions are all over the map.”

On Jan. 24, 2023, a white person called Rankin County Deputy Brett McAlphin complaining that Jenkins and Parker were staying with a white woman in a house in Braxton, Mississippi, according to the Associated Press.

McAlphin told Dedmon in a group text of white deputies who called themselves the "Good Squad.” The Justice Department mentioned that this squad used excessive force and didn't report it.

The group would go on to handcuff Jenkins and Parker, poured chocolate syrup, alcohol and milk on their faces, and made them undress to get in the shower together to hide the mess, according to the AP. They then "punched and kicked the victims, forcing them to ingest liquids, assaulting them with a sex toy and shocking them with a stun gun 17 times." They did all of this while calling them racial slurs and telling them to stay out of Rankin County.

Hunter Elward, another deputy, removed a bullet from his gun chamber and placed the gun in Jenkins’ mouth only to pull the trigger, which made it click instead of going off. Elward then discharged the gun the second time, and a bullet lacerated Jenkins’ tongue, breaking his jaw. The bullet exited through Jenkins’ neck, and he still has trouble speaking and eating.

The then-officers did not offer medical aid. They devised a false cover story and planted a gun on Jenkins. They also destroyed video evidence and submitted false drug evidence to the crime lab and filed false reports.

Jenkins and Parker were apprehended on false charges that would go on to be dismissed.

Elward was sentenced to 20 years, while Middleton was issued a 17.5-year sentence.

McAlpin was sentenced to 27 years in prison and Joshua Harfield, the final member of the gang, was sentenced to 10 years.