Multiple Mississippi deputies have been after 2 Black men file lawsuit alleging torture and attempted sexual assault

Multiple Mississippi deputies have been fired after two Black men accused them of beating, torturing, and sexually violating them and have federal civil rights lawsuit. The lawsuit says that one of the men was nearly killed by an officer who put a gun into his mouth and pulled the trigger.

 Michael Jenkins, 32, and Eddie Parker, 35, filed the $400 million lawsuit against the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department. The lawsuit that was filed this month describes the deputies’ alleged actions as “one of the worst and most bizarre incidents of police misconduct in United States history.”

“Due to recent developments, including findings during our internal investigation, those deputies that are still employed by this department have all been terminated,” said Sheriff Bryan Bailey who read from a prepared statement. The department would not say how many deputies were fired.

“We understand that the alleged actions of the deputies have eroded the public’s trust in our department,” said Bailey, who is named in the lawsuit. “Rest assured that we will work diligently to restore that trust.”

A federal civil rights investigation has been opened by the FBI, the Justice Department, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Southern Mississippi.

Jenkins and Parke lived together at the time of the alleged assault they are claiming in the lawsuit that deputies entered their residence without reason or warning. The deputies proceeded to beat, waterboard, stun, sexually violate, and attack them with racial slurs, stated the lawsuit.

The lawsuit alleges that the officers hurled racist insults at the men and angrily accused them of dating white women. The deputies allegedly handcuffed and beat the men before shooting them with Tasers 20 to 30 times “in a sadistic contest with each other as to which Taser would be most effective when fired against these two victims,” said court documents.

The deputies then put the men on their backs and poured water on their faces to waterboard them, the lawsuit claims, before sexually assaulting them with a sex toy.

Multiple deputies threatened to kill them and put their guns to their heads, says the lawsuit.