Mississippi cops convicted of torturing Black men also took part in the police shooting of another Black man, lawsuit says

• Six Mississippi police officers were convicted of torturing two Black men in August.
• Two of those officers were also involved in the shooting of Pierre Woods, according to a lawsuit.
• Woods’s family says police used excessive force when they shot him to death in 2019.

At least two Mississippi sheriff’s deputies convicted of torturing Black men — both of them members of the Rankin County “Goon Squad” — were also present for the shooting of a different Black man in 2019, according to a lawsuit.

Six officers in total pleaded guilty on August 3 to federal charges related to the attack on two Black men earlier in the year. Five of the former officers were deputies for the Rankin County Sheriff’s Office, and one was an officer for the nearby Richland Police Department.

The six men, who called themselves the “Goon Squad” because they were willing to secretly use excessive force, broke into the home of Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker in Braxton, Mississippi on January 24. They didn’t have a warrant. The officers then beat and sexually assaulted the two men before one of the deputies — Hunter Elward — shot Jenkins in the mouth, according to a criminal complaint.

Two of those convicted “Goon Squad” officers, Elward and Christian Dedmon, were also present during the police shooting of Pierre Woods in February 2019, according to a lawsuit.

“Enough shots to kill an elephant”

Vanessa Barrett and Dris Mitchell, two women who have children with Woods, filed a lawsuit in 2021 against Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey, the City of Pelahatchie, and more than a dozen other police officers who were there when Woods was killed.

Court documents filed on August 14 note that Elward and Dedmon were named as defendants in the case, and that they have since been fired from the sheriff’s department after pleading guilty to several federal charges.

Police said officers responded to Woods’s home after someone called to report Woods was firing a gun on his property, the Associated Press reported at the time. Sheriff Bailey said that officers used tear gas and tried to negotiate with Woods to get him to come out of his house, according to the outlet.

In an amended lawsuit complaint, attorneys for Mitchell and Barrett said Woods ran to the front door of his house “physically disoriented and visually impaired from the tear gas” and with his hands above his head.

“Although Woods had a pistol in one of his hands, both his hands were extended above his head as he approached the front door,” the amended complaint says. “Once he reached the front door of his home, Woods immediately threw the pistol to the ground, and it landed in the area where Deputy Hunter Elward and Deputy Zach Acy were positioned.”

The officers began firing “without warning” as Woods exited the home and continued to fire after he fell to the ground, leaving “both his body and home riddled with bullet fragments,” the amended complaint says.

The lawsuit says Woods appeared “disoriented, mentally challenged, and possibly intoxicated” when police found him alone inside his home.

Woods’s brother, Lataskin Woods, told WAPT, a local ABC affiliate in nearby Jackson, that he thought police used excessive force at the time.

“They fired enough shots to kill an elephant,” Woods told the outlet. “You’ll go to jail for shooting a dog as many times as they shot my brother.”

Family members of Woods have said that he was “mentally disturbed” and may have been upset over the anniversary of his mother’s death, the Associated Press reported at the time.

Tamekia Reed, an attorney for Barrett and Mitchell, declined to comment about the case when reached by Insider. No charges have ever been filed against any officers related to Woods’ death.

Elward involved in 3rd violent incident

Elward was also involved in the July 2021 death of Damien Cameron.

Elward tased and beat Damien Cameron, a Black man, before he died, according to a police report obtained by Insider.

Police responded to Cameron’s home after his neighbor called to report that he was vandalizing their home, according to a police report.

Cameron’s mother, Monica Lee, told Insider that Damien went into her neighbor’s home to ask for yard work, and the neighbor became upset upon finding him inside the house. Lee denies that Damien vandalized the neighbor’s house.

In the report, Elward wrote that he punched Cameron at least three times and tased him three times.

Lee previously told Insider that deputies knelt on her son’s back for more than 15 minutes even as he complained that he could not breathe. The Mississippi state medical examiner found Cameron’s cause of death inconclusive, according to Lee.

A Mississippi grand jury declined to press charges against Elward and other deputies involved in the beating due to insufficient evidence in October 2022.

Three independent forensic pathologists consulted by The New York Times said hemorrhaging in Cameron’s neck showed clear signs that the cause of death was asphyxiation.

The Rankin County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately return a request for comment from Insider.