Five Mississippi deputy sheriffs who responded to an incident where two Black men accused them of beating and sexually assaulting them before shooting one in the mouth have been fired or resigned, authorities have confirmed.
The announcement came on Tuesday, June 27, months after Michael Corey Jenkins and friend Eddie Terrell Parker said deputies from the Rankin County Sheriff's Department burst into a home without a warrant.
The men accused the deputies of beating them, assaulting them with a sex toy and repeatedly shocking them with Tasers during the roughly 90-minute ordeal on January 24.
Mr Jenkins said one of the deputies shoved a gun in his mouth, firing the weapon and leaving him with serious injuries to his face, tongue and jaw. A civil rights investigation was opened by the Justice Department into the Rankin County Sheriff's Department following the incident.
Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey announced on Tuesday that the five deputies involved in the incident had been fired, and some had already resigned. However, he would not provide the names of the deputies who had been sacked, or say how many of them were fired.
"Due to recent developments, including findings during our internal investigation, those deputies that were still employed by this department have all been terminated," said Sheriff Bailey.
"We understand that the alleged actions of these deputies has eroded the public's trust in the department. Rest assured that we will work diligently to restore that trust."
The announcement comes after an investigation by the Associated Press which found several deputies who were involved in the incident were also linked to at least four violent encounters with Black men since 2019. As a result of those encounters, two people died and another was left with lasting injuries.
Deputies who had been accepted to the sheriff's office's Special Response Team - a tactical unit whose members receive advanced training - were involved in each of the four encounters.
Deputies claimed the raid was prompted by a report of drug activity at the home. Police and court records obtained by AP revealed the identities of two deputies involved in the raid: Hunter Elward and Chsitrian Dedmon.
It wasn't clear immediately whether any of the deputies had attorneys to comment on their behalf. Speaking on Tuesday, Jason Dare, an attorney representing the Rankin County Sheriff's Department, said the department knows of five deputies who conducted the raid.
Mr Jenkins and his attorney have said six deputies were at the home. All five identified by the department were either fired or have resigned.
There is no body camera footage of the incident, but records obtained by PA show Tasers used by the deputies were turned on, turned off, or used dozens of times during a roughly 65-minute period before Mr Jenkins was shot.
Mr Jenkins and Mr Parker have also filed a federal civil rights lawsuit and are seeking $400 million (£316.5 million) in damages. An attorney representing the pair, Malik Shabazz, issued a statement which celebrated the firing of the officers and called for criminal indictments of deputies by the state attorney general and the Justice Department.
"The firing of the Rankin County Mississippi Sheriff's deputies involved in the torture and shooting of Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker is a significant action on the path to justice for one of the worst law enforcement tragedies in recent memory," said Mr Shabazz.
"Sheriff Bryan Bailey has finally acted after supporting much of the bloodshed that has occurred under his reign in Rankin County."
