Mississippi 'Goon Squad' Officer Sentenced to 20 Years for Torture of 2 Black Men

Mar. 15, 2025

Brett McAlpin, Hunter Elward, Daniel Opdyke, Jeffrey Middleton, Christian Dedmon and Joshua Hartfield.Photo:AP Photo

AP Photo

It began with a call from a neighbor complaining about Black men staying at a White woman’s house.

Today, two of those former officers will be sentenced in connection to the racially-motivated attacks on Jenkins and Eddie Parker.

AP Photo/HG Biggs

“I was raised as a Christian, and I’ve slacked off, but I’m going to do better and seek counseling,” Elward said at his sentencing Tuesday per WLBT, noting: “That’s my only way out, the only choice I have now.”

He added: “I hope you understand I am truly sorry.”

Jeffrey Middleton will be sentenced this afternoon for conspiracy to obstruct justice, obstruction of justice, conspiracy to deprive rights and three counts of deprivation against rights.

Hunter Elward and Jeffrey Middleton.AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis

AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis

Brett McAlpin, Daniel Opdyke, Joshua Hartfield and Christian Dedmon, who previously pleaded guilty in the case, will be sentenced March 20 and 21.

In an interview with PEOPLE, Trent Walker – one of the lawyers representing Jenkins and Parker in a civil suit against the former officers and county sheriff – said he hopes the high-profile case leads to law enforcement reform in Mississippi.

“Justice doesn’t just look like these officers going to jail,” Walker says. “But it also looks like a change to the way policing is done in Rankin County– and we hope in the state and the nation.”

Lawyer Trent Walker (C) between Eddie Parker (L) and Michael Jenkins (R). Malik Shabazz, who also represents the two men, is standing behind Walker at a press conference in Jackson, Miss. March 18.Emily Palmer

Emily Palmer

Parker worked as the live-in caretaker of a White woman with disabilities, with whom he attended high school.

She was in the hospital when, per the complaint, Dedmon messaged the squad: “Are y’all available for a mission?”

The squad broke into the home without a warrant.

Eddie Terrell Parker (R) and Michael Corey Jenkins (C) listen as one of the former law enforcement officers admits to his involvement in the racially-motivated attack. The six former officers pleaded guilty at Rankin County Circuit Court in Brandon, Miss. on Aug. 14, 2023.AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis

Coming upon two officers in his hallway, “I had one thing in my head,” Parker tells PEOPLE. “We were going to die.”

The squad unleashed their tasers 17 times on the cuffed men “to see which one was the most powerful.”

Opdyke attached a sex toy to a BB gun and “forced the dildo into” Parker’s mouth, per the complaint.

Elward – separately named in the wrongful death suit of another Black man,Damien Cameronin 2021 – removed a bullet from his gun and forced Jenkins “onto his knees.”

Michael Jenkins (behind him lawyer Malik Shabazz) with Eddie Parker (background) recounts that Jan. 24 night.Emily Palmer

“I was looking up at him,” Jenkins tells PEOPLE. “He looked at me in my eye, I looked at him.”

Jenkins estimated 10 or 15 seconds passed before Elward pulled the trigger.

“The bullet lacerated [Jenkin’s] tongue, broke [his] jaw and exited out of [his] neck,” states the complaint.

Michael Jenkins recovering at the hospital.Jenkins Family Member

Jenkins Family Member

As Jenkins “was bleeding on the floor,” officers concocted a cover story.

Middleton suggested planting his own unregistered “throw-down” gun – which he kept in his patrol car –  to explain the gunfire.

“But it’s very hard to explain how an entry wound comes from the inside of someone’s mouth,” Walker says. “And everything unraveled from there.”

Gwendolyn Eason Palmer

PEOPLE reached out to the officer’s lawyers.

Jeffery P. Reynolds, who represents Opdyke, said his client “has admitted he was wrong, and feels deep remorse for the pain he caused the victims.”

“I would be shocked if these were the only six members of the Goon Squad,” Walker says. “If nothing else, there are more who turned a blind eye to the brutality they witnessed going on.”

Emily Palmer reported from Jackson, Miss. Christine Pelisek contributed reporting from Los Angeles.

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source: people.com