US marshals brutally hit two boys while arresting them last month in the southern US state of Mississippi, according to local media.
The Intercept, an American online news publication, reported last week that the two boys aged 16 and 17 were arrested in Jackson, Mississippi on Sept. 16 “on charges related to August shooting in the nearby city of Canton.”
“Footage of the arrest shows one officer leading a shirtless, handcuffed boy past another officer, who reaches out and hits the boy across the face, making a loud noise on impact and leaving him bleeding from his mouth or nose,” the publication reported.
Citing the lawyer representing one of the teens and his mother, The Intercept reported that the teenagers “have said that officers physically assaulted them while they were handcuffed, including by whipping them with a green extension cord, outside the camera’s view.”
The incident is being investigated by the US officials.
According to the publication, the officers are serving for the US Marshals Service Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force. “The marshals do not wear body cameras,” it added.
Founded in 2006, the force works in Alabama and Mississippi and “deputizes state and local officers as marshals, offering them expanded powers to target people wanted for violent crimes,” it reported.
According to The Intercept, the unit shot and killed a 20-year-old man in 2019.
