Michael Jenkins (behind him lawyer Malik Shabazz) with Eddie Parker (background) recounts that Jan. 24 night.Photo:Emily Palmer
Emily Palmer
WhenEddie Parkersawlaw enforcement officers in his hallway, “It was my worst dream come true,” he tells PEOPLE. “I knew what wasabout to transpire.”
That night, on Jan. 24, 2023, six White law enforcement officers – who called themselves the “Goon Squad” – broke into the Braxton, Miss. home where Parker worked as a live-in aid to a White woman with disabilities and terrorized the two Black men inside, firing their guns and threatening to anally rape them with sex toys.
“I had but one thing in my head,” Parker recalls. “We were going to die.”
Eddie Parker during an interview with PEOPLE at his lawyer’s office in Jackson, Miss. March 18.Gwendolyn Eason Palmer
Gwendolyn Eason Palmer
Four former Rankin County sheriff’s officers have beensentencedso far in the racially motivated attack.
Convicted of some of the most heinous crimes in the episode, Hunter Elward – who shot his gun into Jenkins’s mouth, nearly severing his tongue – faced up to 70 years behind bars.
On Tuesday, a Mississippi judge sentenced the former patrol deputy to 20 years in prison for discharge of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, conspiracy to obstruct justice, obstruction of justice, two counts of conspiracy to deprive rights and six counts of deprivation against rights,per the Department of Justice.
Brett McAlpin, Hunter Elward, Daniel Opdyke, Jeffrey Middleton, Christian Dedmon and Joshua Hartfield.AP Photo
AP Photo
Jeffrey Middleton, 46, a former lieutenant, was also sentenced Tuesday to 17.5 years behind bars for conspiracy to obstruct justice, obstruction of justice, conspiracy to deprive rights and three counts of deprivation against rights.
On Wednesday afternoon Christian Dedmon, formerly the sheriff’s narcotics investigator, was sentenced to 40 years for discharge of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, conspiracy to obstruct justice, obstruction of justice, two counts of conspiracy to deprive rights and six counts of deprivation against rights.
Also on Wednesday former patrol deputy Daniel Opdyke received 17.5 years behind bars, for conspiracy to obstruct justice, obstruction of justice, conspiracy to deprive rights and five counts of deprivation against rights, the Department of Justice confirms to PEOPLE.
Opdyke’s lawyer, Jeffery P. Reynolds – the only defense lawyer to respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment – said Opdyke “has admitted he was wrong, and feels deep remorse for the pain he caused the victims.”
“I cannot fathom how I fell so easily in line, going along with and actively participating in the use of excessive force against Mr. Parker and Mr. Jenkins,” Opdyke said through tears at his sentencing hearing Wednesday morning,per CNN.
Then Opdyke — who had assaulted Parker with a sex toy mounted to a BB gun that January night — turned to Parker, whose head hung between his legs as he cried.
“Nothing I say can undo the harm that I caused you,” Opdyke told him. “I can only take full responsibility for my actions, and I deeply regret all the pain and suffering I’ve caused you.”
Tears streaming down his face, Parker stood and left the courtroom with his aunt, the outlet reported.
Brett McAlpin, the sheriff’s former chief investigator and Joshua Hartfield, formerly a narcotics investigator for the Richland Police Department, both previously pleaded guilty in relation to the case and will be sentenced March 21.
The former officers are also charged in an upcoming state case, with sentencing to run concurrent with their federal time.
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“They told me to get down,” Jenkins tells PEOPLE. “And I got down.”
Elward removed a bullet from its chamber and pushed his gun into Jenkins’s mouth.
AP Photo/HG Biggs
“I was looking up at him,” Jenkins tells PEOPLE. “He looked at me, in my eye. I looked at him.”
Elward pulled the trigger.
The first time, the gun did not discharge. The second time, the bullet “lacerated [Jenkins'] tongue, broke his jaw and exited out of his neck,” states the complaint.
As Jenkins “was bleeding on the floor,” officers concocted a cover story.
Michael Jenkins was hospitalized for some 20 days following the Jan. 24, 2023 attack.Jenkins Family Member
Jenkins Family Member
It was not the first time.
Dedmon admitted to punching, kicking and tasing the man. Then, drawing near him, Dedmon discharged his gun “for the purpose of scaring” him “and coercing a confession.”
All three officers involved in that incident have pleaded guilty to deprivation against rights charges, with Dedmon also pleading guilty to a charge of discharge of a firearm in furtherance of crime of violence, the Department of Justice confirms to PEOPLE. They are being sentenced this week.
Elward is also separately named in a wrongful death suit related to another Black man,Damien Cameronin 2021.
Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey.Rankin County Sheriff Department
Rankin County Sheriff Department
In the months after his deputies admitted to torturing Parker and Jenkins,Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Baileyranunopposed, winning re-election in November.
PEOPLE reached out to Bailey multiple times over five days, with no response.
“Had Bryan Bailey been doing his job, none of this would have happened,” Shabazz said at a press conference this week. “How is it that officers are discharging their weapons, and you don’t even know that they’re discharging the weapons?” he said of Bailey.
“I mean that’s outrageous,” he added, referencing the lack of immediate action following A.S.’s assault. “You’re not even counting the bullets.”
Emily Palmer reported from Jackson, Miss.
source: people.com
