Police Group Unleashed Over Two Decades of Terror on Residents

(ProsperNews.net) – A group of police officers in Mississippi abused people for years without consequence, according to recently released documents. The group of six officers pleaded guilty in August to torturing and sexually assaulting two black men in Rankin County, and court documents subsequently revealed that two of the officers were present at the deaths of two other black men in 2019 and 2021. Media outlet Business Insider furthermore uncovered that at least four people died in the custody of the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department in 2021.

Business Insider sued the department last year to force it to provide documentation related to the deaths of Damien Cameron, Trevor McKinley, Robert Rushton, and Michael Corey Jenkins, arguing that failure to do so breached Mississippi’s Public Records Act. However, the Sheriff’s office refused, saying these were “investigate reports” that could not be made public. The judge ruled for the newspaper, and the records were released earlier this year.

Since then, investigators from the New York Times and Mississippi Today have pored over several police papers and court documents, as well as interviewed witnesses, and unveiled a long history of abuse by officers.

Mississippi Today reports that the group of deputies, known as the “Goon Squad,” entered people’s homes without warrants and accused them of dealing drugs. Witnesses and victims say they held residents at gunpoint and often tied them up and beat them. In one incident in 2018, officers allegedly shoved a stick in the threat of Robert Jones until he vomited blood. Another victim, Mitchell Hobson, had reportedly been tied up with a lamp cord and subjected to waterboarding.

The reign of terror came to an end when the officers confessed to breaking into the home of Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker, shocking them with tasers, and forcing guns into their mouths. A gun went off and seriously injured one of the victims. The officers were charged with federal crimes, and the years of abuse were uncovered.