Four former Mississippi police officers were sentenced Wednesday and Thursday to 10 to 40 years in prison for the gruesome torture of two African-American men in January 2023.

A total of six white former police officers from the southern US state involved in the case pleaded guilty in August. They tortured the victims for almost two hours, using a dummy penis, a taser, a sword and finally a gun. One of them went so far as to put his service weapon in the other’s mouth and shoot, breaking his jaw.

The officer in question, Hunter Elward, 31, was sentenced Monday to serve 20 years in prison. His colleague Geoffrey Middleton, 46, was sentenced to serve 17.5 years in prison.

Two others, Christian Dedmon, 2, and Daniel Opdike, 28, were sentenced last Wednesday to serve 40 and 17 years in prison, respectively. The first was sentenced to the heaviest punishment because he committed the worst torture of a sexual nature.

Brett McAlpin, 53, and Joshua Hartfield, 32, were sentenced Thursday to 27 and 10 years in prison, respectively.

Federal authorities will ensure “police officers who violate constitutional rights and betray public trust are held accountable,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said earlier this week in a press release issued by his department.

In January 2023, the six police officers, members of a group notorious for its brutality, broke in “without a warrant or reasonable cause” at a home in the small town of Braxton, Mississippi, where suspicious activity had been reported, according to documents.

When they found two black men inside, they handcuffed them and abused them with “racist” names.

According to the indictment, they raped one with the dummy and administered 17 electric shocks to the victims with the tasers they were carrying. They humiliated the men by forcing them to swallow alcohol, cooking oil, milk and other liquids, repeatedly causing them to fake drown.

The ordeal, which lasted almost two hours, culminated when Hunter Ellward put his service weapon into the mouth of one of the two. To scare him, he first pulled the trigger after removing a bullet from the chamber. But when he pulled the trigger again, the gun went off. The bullet shattered the victim’s jaw and exited his neck, according to a forensic report included in the indictment.

The officers then left their victims lying in pools of blood for hours without calling an ambulance, debating outside which house how they would cover up their actions.

The team destroyed the CCTV installed in the house, the bullet casing, and attempted to burn the victims’ clothing to tamper with the evidence, according to the indictment.

He also placed a gas gun and methamphetamine inside the house to justify a posteriori the home invasion.

The officers then filed false reports and repeatedly lied to their colleagues and to prosecutors handling the investigation into the case.

An investigation by the New York Times and Mississippi Today media indicated that African-Americans in Rankin County, where the case unfolded, often experience police brutality. In response, the state Congress passed a bill last year that would allow police officers accused of racially motivated offenses and other violations to have their licenses revoked, even if they do not face criminal charges.