Six sheriff's deputies responding to a report of drug activity at a Mississippi home in January deactivated their body cameras before forcibly entering the house - despite not having a search warrant, a lawsuit alleges.

Once inside, the Rankin County Sheriff's Office deputies allegedly handcuffed two Black men and subjected them to a night of abuse. While Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker were subdued, the deputies beat them, hurled racist slurs and repeatedly used Tasers on the men, the federal lawsuit filed Monday by Jenkins and Parker states.

The deputies, who are White, also waterboarded Jenkins and Parker, pelted them with eggs and attempted to sexually assault them with a sex toy, according to the lawsuit.

The encounter ended nearly two hours later when a deputy placed a gun in Jenkins's mouth and shot him, permanently injuring his face, the lawsuit alleges.

Jenkins and Parker are suing Rankin County; Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey; deputies Hunter Elward, Brett Mc'Alpin and Christian Dedmon; and three other unnamed deputies in the Southern District of Mississippi for carrying out and overseeing what their lawsuit describes as a sadistic torture session. The court complaint details new allegations in an incident that has already led to outcry in the community and prompted state and federal investigations into the sheriff's office.

"I've never heard of such a conglomeration of violations and crimes and torts committed in one ordeal," Malik Shabazz, Jenkins's attorney, told The Washington Post. "It was hard for me to believe."

Bailey, the three named deputies and the Rankin County Sheriff's Office did not respond to requests for comment. An attorney for Rankin County declined to comment.

In a February statement, Bailey said his office was cooperating with the state investigation and pledged to hold "any deputy or suspect involved" accountable if they were found to have broken the law, WLBT reported.

Jenkins was visiting Parker, a close friend, in Rankin County on Jan. 24, Jenkins's mother, Mary, told The Post.

A redacted incident report from the sheriff's office says that deputies were responding to a report of drug activity when they arrived at the home and that a deputy found two bags "containing what appeared to be methamphetamine." While at the house, a deputy shot a person who "displayed a gun" toward them, according to a statement the Mississippi Department of Public Safety released a day after the incident.

The reports do not describe the incident further.

But the lawsuit alleges they obscured a harrowing encounter during which the deputies subjected Jenkins and Parker to degrading abuse for nearly two hours. The deputies did not possess a search warrant when they forcibly entered Parker's home, according to the court complaint, which claims the officers intentionally deactivated their body cameras before entering.

First, the deputies handcuffed Jenkins and Parker, who complied and did not resist, the lawsuit states. Neither Jenkins nor Parker possessed or displayed a weapon during the encounter, it asserts. The deputies then allegedly punched, slapped and kicked the two men and drew Tasers on them. The deputies engaged in a "sadistic contest" to see which Taser would be most effective on Jenkins and Parker and fired the weapons 20 to 30 times, court documents state.

The deputies then forced the two men on their backs and waterboarded them with liquids found in Parker's home, including milk, Shabazz said.

The deputies also allegedly attempted to insert a sex toy into Jenkins's and Parker's mouths and Jenkins's rear.

Afterward, the deputies threw eggs at the two men, covering them and the walls of the home in eggshells and residue, according to the lawsuit. They then forced the two men to strip naked and shower together to conceal evidence of their abuse, the complaint alleges.

Throughout the encounter, deputies allegedly placed guns to the heads of Jenkins and Parker and threatened to kill them. They also allegedly called Jenkins and Parker racial slurs, including "monkey," and accused them of "racial violations," like dating White women.

Around 11:40 p.m., roughly two hours after the deputies entered Parker's home, Elward placed his gun inside Jenkins's mouth and shot him, shattering his jaw and cutting his tongue, the lawsuit states.

Jenkins stumbled out of the door and fell, and about 20 minutes passed, according to the lawsuit, which alleges the deputies "would not assist him in any way" during that time. The redacted incident report says the officers notified EMS at some point.

Jenkins was transported by medics to the University of Mississippi Medical Center and received several surgeries, according to the lawsuit. Parker was arrested and transported to the Rankin County Jail on a charge of possession of drug paraphernalia, according to the incident report. Jenkins faced a charge of aggravated assault. Prosecutors did not move forward with charges, Shabazz said.

Jenkins suffered permanent nerve damage and numbness on one side of his face, court documents state. When Mary Jenkins first saw her son in the hospital after his surgeries, he was breathing through a respirator and his swollen hands were handcuffed, she said.

When he was released from the hospital around a month later, his demeanor transformed, Mary added. Once outgoing and talkative, he is now skittish and subdued and frequently relives the night he was shot, she said.

"He's still having nightmares at night," Mary said. "He sleeps with the light on."

The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation began investigating the incident, first reported as an officer-involved shooting, the next day. The FBI Jackson Field Office, the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney's Office opened a federal civil rights investigation into the incident in February, the FBI announced.

The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation and FBI Jackson Field Office did not respond to inquiries on the statuses of their investigations.

Rankin County and Bailey are also facing a wrongful-death lawsuit brought by the family of a man shot and killed by officers overseen by Bailey in 2019. And in March, a county judge ruled that the sheriff's office had violated the Mississippi Public Records Act by withholding incident reports about three men who were killed by sheriff's deputies or died in their custody.

Shabazz said the six deputies were not punished for their actions in January and remain with the sheriff's office. The Rankin County Sheriff's Office did not respond to an inquiry about the deputies' employment.

Shabazz called for the prosecution of the deputies involved.

"This is pure, cold, raw, hateful intimidation and a form of torture and terror that I hope no other American citizen will ever experience," he said.

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