A judge sentenced another former Mississippi deputy from a self-described “Goon Squad” to federal prison on Thursday for the torture and abuse of two Black men in a racist attack.
Brett Morris McAlpin, 53, was ordered to serve 327 months, which is more than 27 years. McAlpin is one of six former Rank County Sheriff’s deputies who admitted to subjecting two Black men, Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker, to acts of racist torture.
He pleaded guilty to multiple charges including conspiracy against rights, obstructions of justice, deprivation of rights under color of law, and conspiracy to obstruct justice.
In January 2023, McAlpin received a call from a white person who complained that Jenkins and Parker were residing with a white woman at a house in Braxton, Mississippi.
McAlpin texted a group who self-described as “The Goon Squad” — a group that the Justice Department said were known “for using excessive force and not reporting it.”
The “Goon Squad” consisted of McAlpin, Christian Dedmon, 29, Jeffrey Middleton, 46, Hunter Elward, 31, Daniel Opdyke, 28, and Joshua Hartfield, 32.
The group then went to the home without a warrant, the Associated Press reported, and assaulted the two Black men with stun guns, forced them to ingest liquids, punched and kicked them, and called them racial slurs.
The Justice Department said the two men were also assaulted with a dildo. Dedmon also fired his gun twice in an effort to intimidate the men, the department said.
Elward removed a bullet from the chamber of his gun and forced the gun into Jenkins’ mouth before pulling the trigger. No bullet was fired the first time, but he pulled the trigger a second time and lacerated tongue, broke his jaw and a bullet exited out of his neck, according to the Justice Department.
The judge sentenced Dedmon to 40 years and Opdyke to 17.5 years on Wednesday. He gave nearly 20 years to Elward and 17.5 years to Middleton on Tuesday.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
