Mississippi Today
Activists seek reckoning for Rankin deputies’ alleged abuses: ‘We’re not asking. We’re demanding.’

Protestors gathered outside the offices of Attorney General Lynn Fitch and Rankin County Sheriff Brian Bailey on Wednesday, calling for the indictment of six Rankin County deputies accused of torturing two Black men and shooting one of them in the mouth while he was restrained.
“We want them charged. We want them sentenced.” said John C. Barnett, one of the organizers of the protest. “We’re not asking. We’re demanding.”
Fitch and Bailey would not meet with the protestors. Organizers said they reached out by phone, letter and email for the past week before attempting to meet with the officials in person and have received no response.
Neither office responded to requests for comment by Mississippi Today.
“Their silence is their answer,” said Sherrell Potts, an organizer with the New Black Panther Party. “We won’t be silent.”
The Department of Justice and the FBI opened an investigation into the incident in January. Last week, Bailey announced that the deputies involved in the alleged torture had been fired.
“This isn’t a decision that Sheriff Bailey made,” Barnett said. “He’s only doing what the Department of Justice put pressure on him to do.”
On Jan. 24, Michael Corey Jenkins, 32, and Eddie Terrell Parker, 35, were at Parker’s home in Braxton when Rankin County deputies burst inside to conduct a narcotics raid, allegedly without a warrant.
The deputies restrained the two men while shouting racial slurs at them, according to a federal lawsuit filed last month. While they were handcuffed, the men were beaten and tased. Court documents also state the men were waterboarded – an illegal torture technique in which a person is restrained, a wet rag is placed over their mouth, and liquid is poured over it to simulate drowning.
The deputies proceeded to sexually assault the two men using a sex toy, according to the lawsuit, before one of the deputies, Hunter Elward, placed a gun in Jenkins’ mouth and fired, breaking his jaw and lacerating his tongue. Jenkins would have died, if he had not received life-saving surgeries, according to his lawyer, Trent Walker.
The day after the incident, Elward signed an affidavit claiming Jenkins had pointed a gun at him, which the federal lawsuit against the deputies called “false.” No firearm was recovered.

“If you are going to shoot him because you claim he had a weapon, then the entry wound would’ve been from outside his mouth,” Walker said.
The deputies did not turn on their body cameras during the incident, according to sheriff’s department’s records. Court documents claim a surveillance camera within the home was taken by the deputies during the arrest and never returned.
Elward’s affidavit stated two bags of methamphetamine were found during the raid. Jenkins was charged with assaulting an officer and drug possession. Parker was charged with possession of drug paraphernalia and disorderly conduct.
“They came there to torture these young men, and that’s what they did,” said Walker, who has asserted the incident was a hate crime.
Walker said one of his clients was living in the home of a White woman with whom he was not romantically involved. “These officers had a problem with that,” Walker said.
“No one is being held accountable,” said Priscilla Sterling, a cousin of Emmitt Till, who was present at Wednesday’s protest.
The Rankin County Sheriff’s Department has faced several investigations into police misconduct, some involving the deputies present at Jenkins’ shooting.
In 2021, a man named Damien Cameron died in police custody after being tasered and restrained by Elward and another deputy.
Cameron’s mother, Monica Lee Cameron also spoke outside the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department, demanding justice for her son. “Sheriff Bailey needs to go,” Cameron said.
In 2021, a man named Cory Jackson died in custody at the Rankin County Jail. Jackson’s family was attempting to take him to a hospital because he was suffering from a psychotic episode when Jackson fled. He was arrested by a Rankin County deputy and suffered injuries while in custody. He died that same night.
In 2019, Pierre Woods was shot and killed by Rankin County deputies including Deputies Christian Dedmond and Hunter Elward.
“This has been happening for many years,” said Charles Muhammad, a community organizer from Jackson who told the crowd at Wednesday’s protest that his son, Andre Lemond Jones, died after he was taken into custody by the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department in 1992. Muhammad said that 19 hours after his son’s arrest, Jones was found dead — strangled with his own shoelaces in Simpson County Jail. Muhammad believes his son was killed because of his family’s involvement in civil rights activism.
“I wanted to add my voice,” Muhammad said, “and let the world know that this has been happening way before this incident.”
John C. Barnett said that if the organizers of Wednesday’s protest did not hear from Attorney General Fitchor Sheriff Bailey by the end of the week, they would return with greater numbers.
“We will be back,” Barnett said.
Nate Rosenfield is an Immersion Fellow with the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting, part of Mississippi Today.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
1964: Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party was formed
April 26, 1964

Civil rights activists started the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party to challenge the state’s all-white regular delegation to the Democratic National Convention.
The regulars had already adopted this resolution: “We oppose, condemn and deplore the Civil Rights Act of 1964 … We believe in separation of the races in all phases of our society. It is our belief that the separation of the races is necessary for the peace and tranquility of all the people of Mississippi, and the continuing good relationship which has existed over the years.”
In reality, Black Mississippians had been victims of intimidation, harassment and violence for daring to try and vote as well as laws passed to disenfranchise them. As a result, by 1964, only 6% of Black Mississippians were permitted to vote. A year earlier, activists had run a mock election in which thousands of Black Mississippians showed they would vote if given an opportunity.
In August 1964, the Freedom Party decided to challenge the all-white delegation, saying they had been illegally elected in a segregated process and had no intention of supporting President Lyndon B. Johnson in the November election.
The prediction proved true, with white Mississippi Democrats overwhelmingly supporting Republican candidate Barry Goldwater, who opposed the Civil Rights Act. While the activists fell short of replacing the regulars, their courageous stand led to changes in both parties.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Mississippi Today
Mississippi River flooding Vicksburg, expected to crest on Monday
Warren County Emergency Management Director John Elfer said Friday floodwaters from the Mississippi River, which have reached homes in and around Vicksburg, will likely persist until early May. Elfer estimated there areabout 15 to 20 roads underwater in the area.
“We’re about half a foot (on the river gauge) from a major flood,” he said. “But we don’t think it’s going to be like in 2011, so we can kind of manage this.”
The National Weather projects the river to crest at 49.5 feet on Monday, making it the highest peak at the Vicksburg gauge since 2020. Elfer said some residents in north Vicksburg — including at the Ford Subdivision as well as near Chickasaw Road and Hutson Street — are having to take boats to get home, adding that those who live on the unprotected side of the levee are generally prepared for flooding.



“There are a few (inundated homes), but we’ve mitigated a lot of them,” he said. “Some of the structures have been torn down or raised. There are a few people that still live on the wet side of the levee, but they kind of know what to expect. So we’re not too concerned with that.”
The river first reached flood stage in the city — 43 feet — on April 14. State officials closed Highway 465, which connects the Eagle Lake community just north of Vicksburg to Highway 61, last Friday.

Elfer said the areas impacted are mostly residential and he didn’t believe any businesses have been affected, emphasizing that downtown Vicksburg is still safe for visitors. He said Warren County has worked with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency to secure pumps and barriers.
“Everybody thus far has been very cooperative,” he said. “We continue to tell people stay out of the flood areas, don’t drive around barricades and don’t drive around road close signs. Not only is it illegal, it’s dangerous.”
NWS projects the river to stay at flood stage in Vicksburg until May 6. The river reached its record crest of 57.1 feet in 2011.




This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Mississippi Today
With domestic violence law, victims ‘will be a number with a purpose,’ mother says
Joslin Napier. Carlos Collins. Bailey Mae Reed.
They are among Mississippi domestic violence homicide victims whose family members carried their photos as the governor signed a bill that will establish a board to study such deaths and how to prevent them.
Tara Gandy, who lost her daughter Napier in Waynesboro in 2022, said it’s a moment she plans to tell her 5-year-old grandson about when he is old enough. Napier’s presence, in spirit, at the bill signing can be another way for her grandson to feel proud of his mother.
“(The board) will allow for my daughter and those who have already lost their lives to domestic violence … to no longer be just a number,” Gandy said. “They will be a number with a purpose.”
Family members at the April 15 private bill signing included Ashla Hudson, whose son Collins, died last year in Jackson. Grandparents Mary and Charles Reed and brother Colby Kernell attended the event in honor of Bailey Mae Reed, who died in Oxford in 2023.
Joining them were staff and board members from the Mississippi Coalition Against Domestic Violence, the statewide group that supports shelters and advocated for the passage of Senate Bill 2886 to form a Domestic Violence Facility Review Board.
The law will go into effect July 1, and the coalition hopes to partner with elected officials who will make recommendations for members to serve on the board. The coalition wants to see appointees who have frontline experience with domestic violence survivors, said Luis Montgomery, public policy specialist for the coalition.
A spokesperson from Gov. Tate Reeves’ office did not respond to a request for comment Friday.
Establishment of the board would make Mississippi the 45th state to review domestic violence fatalities.
Montgomery has worked on passing a review board bill since December 2023. After an unsuccessful effort in 2024, the coalition worked to build support and educate people about the need for such a board.
In the recent legislative session, there were House and Senate versions of the bill that unanimously passed their respective chambers. Authors of the bills are from both political parties.
The review board is tasked with reviewing a variety of documents to learn about the lead up and circumstances in which people died in domestic violence-related fatalities, near fatalities and suicides – records that can include police records, court documents, medical records and more.
From each review, trends will emerge and that information can be used for the board to make recommendations to lawmakers about how to prevent domestic violence deaths.
“This is coming at a really great time because we can really get proactive,” Montgomery said.
Without a board and data collection, advocates say it is difficult to know how many people have died or been injured in domestic-violence related incidents.
A Mississippi Today analysis found at least 300 people, including victims, abusers and collateral victims, died from domestic violence between 2020 and 2024. That analysis came from reviewing local news stories, the Gun Violence Archive, the National Gun Violence Memorial, law enforcement reports and court documents.
Some recent cases the board could review are the deaths of Collins, Napier and Reed.
In court records, prosecutors wrote that Napier, 24, faced increased violence after ending a relationship with Chance Fabian Jones. She took action, including purchasing a firearm and filing for a protective order against Jones.
Jones’s trial is set for May 12 in Wayne County. His indictment for capital murder came on the first anniversary of her death, according to court records.
Collins, 25, worked as a nurse and was from Yazoo City. His ex-boyfriend Marcus Johnson has been indicted for capital murder and shooting into Collins’ apartment. Family members say Collins had filed several restraining orders against Johnson.
Johnson was denied bond and remains in jail. His trial is scheduled for July 28 in Hinds County.
He was a Jackson police officer for eight months in 2013. Johnson was separated from the department pending disciplinary action leading up to immediate termination, but he resigned before he was fired, Jackson police confirmed to local media.
Reed, 21, was born and raised in Michigan and moved to Water Valley to live with her grandparents and help care for her cousin, according to her obituary.
Kylan Jacques Phillips was charged with first degree murder for beating Reed, according to court records. In February, the court ordered him to undergo a mental evaluation to determine if he is competent to stand trial, according to court documents.
At the bill signing, Gandy said it was bittersweet and an honor to meet the families of other domestic violence homicide victims.
“We were there knowing we are not alone, we can travel this road together and hopefully find ways to prevent and bring more awareness about domestic violence,” she said.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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