Mississippi cops, who called themselves the Goon Squad, had a group chat in which they shared images of dead bodies and discussed how to humiliate and attack suspects.
In the private WhatsApp group that included their supervisor, Rankin County sheriff’s deputies exchanged images of suspects and victims and joked about raping and Tasering people, as reported by The New York Times.
Six officers from the department have been sentenced to decades in prison on state and federal charges for torturing two black men, Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker, after raiding a home in Mississippi in January 2023.
At least nine of the officers are still employed at the Rankin County Sheriff’s Office. Most of the officers in the chat have not been accused of crimes or accused of illegal behavior. They told the NYT that their comments were jokes.
Police used the chat for years to discuss how to humiliate and abuse suspects, goad each other into attacking and shaming addicts and people accused of crimes, and shock people in the genitals with Tasers.
In the private WhatsApp group that included their now-convicted supervisor, Lt. Jeffrey Middleton, Rankin County sheriff’s deputies joked about raping and Tasering people
The delegates had been calling themselves the nickname since at least 2019 and discussed creating a commemorative coin for themselves in 2020
The messages included racist comments about Mexicans and memes depicting women as sex objects. The officers also talked about taking nude photos of a woman they arrested.
One officer shared a video of a deputy defecating on someone’s bed.
When they came across someone who died by suicide, murder or an accident, they shared images of the corpses and joked about having sex with them.
In May 2022, Deputy Zachary Cotton shared a photo of a man’s decomposing body in an impoverished neighborhood, prompting his colleague Hunter Cook to respond, “That’s hot.”
“Poke him with a stick,” added Lt. Jeffrey Middleton, the group’s supervisor, who is now serving 17 years in prison.
The group once discussed a man arrested on suspicion of domestic violence, with Hunter Elrward asking, “Did you grope him in the face!?”
Daniel Opdyke, who is now in prison, asked if they had shocked the man in the anus.
Daniel Opdyke, now in prison, asked his colleagues in the chat whether they had shocked a suspect in the anus
The group once discussed a man arrested on suspicion of domestic violence, with Hunter Elrward asking: ‘Did you grope him in the face!?’. In a botched mock execution, Elward shot Jenkins in the mouth, breaking his tongue and jaw
Cook responded that if the area had been more remote, the suspect “would have gotten more love.”
He told the NYT that he was aggravated because the suspect was accused of child molestation, adding, “I didn’t do anything illegal or anything like that with him.”
When asked about the exchange, Cook, who no longer works in law enforcement, told the NYT, “We see dead bodies all the time… That’s kind of how we deal with things.”
Cook added that if he had known some of his colleagues were torturing people, he “would not have made such jokes.”
Cotton, who still works in the department, said, “It’s not against the law. I didn’t make any vulgar comments about it.’
During an exchange in November 2019, the officers proposed turning their work into a game: one point per arrest. Deputy Cody Grogan then asked the group how many points he would get if he shot someone.
Lieutenant Middleton replied, “Depends on whether they die or not.”
Deputy Luke Stickman wrote, “They will die.”
“They die,” Grogan agreed.
Grogan, who no longer works in the department, said the messages were jokes and “People who know me know this isn’t going to happen. I’m not going out there and shooting anyone.”
Prosecutors said the convicted corrupt officers used the WhatsApp chat to plan the 2023 raid, during which they tortured Jenkins and Parker.
Sheriff Bryan Bailey has claimed he knew nothing about the Goon Squad name or allegations of violence against his deputies.
The delegates had been calling themselves the nickname since at least 2019 and discussed creating a commemorative coin for themselves in 2020.
Middleton suggested that the coin include images of a noose and a Confederate flag.
The same year, the group texted what to do with a hit-and-run suspect, with Grogan offering a quote from the department’s then-chief investigator, Brett McAlpin, who prosecutors said was the squad’s ring leader and now is in prison.
The officers charged in connection with the assault of Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker were (Top L-R) Brett McAlpin, Jeffrey Middleton and Christian Dedmon. (Below L-R) Hunter Elward, Daniel Opdyke, Joshua Hartfield
‘Nothing scares a man more than kidnapping him’ — Brett McAlpin,” Gorgan wrote.
Police then joked about killing the man and burying him in Grogan’s home.
In another exchange in 2020, two deputies asked Middleton if they could beat a man suspected of exposing himself to women.
“That’s fine, just justify it in your report,” Lieutenant Middleton replied.
The six former officers who attacked Jenkins and Parker were sentenced in March to federal prison terms ranging from about 10 to 40 years.
Michael Corey Jenkins, left, and Eddie Terrell Parker, foreground, two victims of racially motivated torture by six former Mississippi law enforcement officers
Michael Corey Jenkins in hospital after being shot in the mouth during the attack
District Judge Tom Lee called their actions “egregious and despicable” as he imposed sentences near the top of federal guidelines on five of the six men.
The defendants include five former Rankin County sheriff’s deputies: Brett McAlpin, 53; Elward, 31; Christian Dedmon, 29; Middleton, 46; and Opdyke, 28 – and a former Richland city police officer, Joshua Hartfield, 32, who was off-duty at the time of the attack.
All six former officers pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to hinder prosecution. They were sentenced on multiple counts ranging from five to twenty years. Elward admitted to aggravated assault and was sentenced to 20 years, in addition to sentences for burglary and conspiracy.
The charges followed an Associated Press investigation in March 2023 that linked some officers to at least four violent encounters since 2019 that left two Black men dead.
Michael Corey Jenkins, left, and Eddie Terrell Parker, right, stand next to lead attorney Malik Shabazz as they call on a federal judge to impose the harshest possible sentences
According to federal prosecutors, the terror began on January 24, 2023, with a racist call for extrajudicial violence.
A white man called McAlpin and complained that two black men were staying with a white woman at a home in Braxton, Mississippi. McAlpin told Dedmon, who texted “The Goon Squad.”
Once inside, they handcuffed Jenkins and his friend Parker and poured milk, alcohol and chocolate syrup on their faces while taunting them with racial slurs. They forced them to undress and shower together to hide the mess. They mocked the victims with racist comments and abused them with sex objects.
In a botched mock execution, Elward shot Jenkins in the mouth, breaking his tongue and jaw. The officers came up with a cover and agreed to plant drugs on Jenkins and Parker. False accusations were made against the men for months.