Deputies accused of abusing Black men are fired by Mississippi sheriff amid federal probe

By MICHAEL GOLDBERG
Associated Press/Report for America

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — All five Mississippi deputy sheriffs accused of beating and sexually assaulting two Black men before shooting one of them in the mouth have been fired. Michael Corey Jenkins and his friend Eddie Terrell Parker say on the night of Jan. 24, deputies from the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department burst into a home without a warrant. Jenkins and Parker say the deputies beat them, assaulted them with a sex toy and stunned them with Tasers repeatedly over roughly 90 minutes. Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey says the deputies involved have been fired, but he did not name the deputies or confirm how many were fired or address specific allegations. The Jan. 24 episode led the Justice Department to open a civil rights investigation into the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department.