Los Angeles: The US Department of Justice announced Thursday that six white Mississippi police officers shot one man through the mouth and neck after torturing two unarmed Black men for hours with a sex toy, Tasers, and a sword.
The brutal attack is the newest racial stain on US policing. The men covered up their crimes by leaving one victim bleeding and hiding the evidence.
Attorney General Merrick Garland stated, "The defendants in this case tortured and caused unspeakable harm to their victims, egregiously violated the civil rights of citizens who they were supposed to protect, and shamefully betrayed the oath they swore as law enforcement officers."
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A former member of the Richland Police Department and five now-ex-members of the Rankin County Sheriff's Department in Mississippi entered guilty pleas on Thursday to a variety of charges, including civil rights conspiracy, deprivation of rights under colour of law, and obstruction of justice.
All six admitted that on January 24 of this year, they entered a home after receiving a tip about suspicious activity, kicked in the door, and started an unprovoked assault on two Black men inside.
The men were racially abused while being handcuffed, and they were told to "stay out of Rankin County," according to the DoJ.
According to a press release, the defendants "punched and kicked the men, tased them 17 times, forced them to drink liquids, and assaulted them with a dildo."
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The DoJ claimed that they also repeatedly struck one man with a wooden kitchen tool and a metal sword.
Hunter Elward, a constable, was 31 years old. He took a bullet out of his gun's chamber and shoved it into one man's mouth before pulling the trigger.
Elward racked the slide with the intention of performing another dry fire. Elward pulled the trigger, and the weapon fired. The victim's tongue was lacerated, his jaw was broken, and the bullet left his neck, according to the DoJ.
The men started putting evidence in place to support their actions as their critically injured victim was bleeding.
"Remarkably, the victim survived the shooting despite the defendants leaving him lying on the floor gushing blood for a significant amount of time... because they were too busy fabricating a false story to cover up their misconduct," prosecutor Kristen Clarke told reporters.
"The actions of these defendants not only caused significant physical, emotional, and psychological harm to the victims, but also to the entire community, who feel they cannot trust the police officers who are supposed to serve them, leaving other police officers to try to mend the communal wounds inflicted by these defendants," Clarke said.
"This trauma is exacerbated because the misconduct was motivated by racial bias and hatred."
All charges were dropped against Elward, Brett McAlpin, 52, Christian Dedmon, 28, Jeffrey Middleton, 46, Daniel Opdyke, 27, and Joshua Hartfield, 31. Dedmon, Elward, and Opdyke also pleaded guilty to three other felony charges stemming from another attack on a white man in December. The six are scheduled to be sentenced on November 14.
Horrifying incidents of police abuse against minorities in the United States have become all too common, with victims like George Floyd and Breonna Taylor serving as symbols of what critics say is wrong with the US law enforcement model.
