Four black people were charged with hate crimes Thursday in connection with a video broadcast live on Facebook that showed a mentally disabled white man being beaten and taunted, threatened with a knife and forced to drink from a toilet.
The assault went on for hours, until Chicago police found the disoriented victim walking along a street, authorities said.
The suspects, who were jailed, can be heard on the video using profanities against white people and President-elect Donald Trump.
Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said investigators initially concluded that the 18-year-old man was singled out because he has “special needs,” not because he was white. But authorities later said the charges resulted from both the suspects’ use of racial slurs and their references to the victim’s disability.
It’s also possible that the suspects were trying to extort something from the victim’s family, police said. The man’s parents reported their son missing Monday and told authorities they later received text messages from people who claimed to be holding him captive.
The victim was a classmate of one of the attackers and initially went with that person voluntarily, police said.
“He’s traumatized by the incident, and it’s very tough to communicate with him at this point,” police Cmdr. Kevin Duffin said.
Excerpts of the video posted by Chicago media outlets show the victim with his mouth taped shut and slumped in a corner of a room. At least two assailants are seen cutting off his sweatshirt, and others taunt him off camera. The video shows a wound on the top of the man’s head. One person pushes the man’s head with his or her foot.
A red band also appears to be around the victim’s hands. He was tied up for four to five hours, authorities said.
The victim does not appear to make any attempt to defend himself or to escape his attackers. He is a suburban Chicago resident described by Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson as having “mental health challenges.”
“There was never a question whether or not this incident qualified as being investigated as a hate crime,” Johnson said. But “we need to base the investigation on facts and not emotion.”
The case heightened political tensions on social media, with some conservatives suggesting it was linked to the Black Lives Matter movement. Police said there was no indication of any connection.
The incident began Dec. 31, when the victim and one of the suspects, 18-year-old Jordan Hill, met at a suburban McDonald’s to begin what both the victim and his parents believed would be a sleepover, police said.
Instead, Hill drove the victim around in a stolen van for a couple of days, ending up at a home in Chicago, where two of the other suspects lived, detective Cmdr. Kevin Duffin said.
The victim told police what began as playful fighting escalated, and he was bound, beaten and taunted with racial slurs and disparaging comments about his mental capacity.
A downstairs neighbor who heard noises threatened to call police. When two of the suspects left and kicked down the neighbor’s door, the victim escaped. A police officer later spotted the obviously disoriented man wandering down a street.
The man was bloodied and wearing a tank top that was inside-out and backward. He had on jean shorts and sandals, despite freezing weather, officer Michael Donnelly said.
Most hate crimes are connected to the victim’s race, but hate-crime charges can be sought in Illinois if a victim’s mental disability sparked an attack, though it is rare.
In addition to hate crimes, the four were charged with kidnapping, aggravated battery and aggravated unlawful restraint. Three were also charged with burglary. It was unclear whether any of the suspects had attorneys. They were to appear in court Friday.
Family members of the victim spoke briefly to reporters Thursday at a suburban hotel but declined to comment on the allegations or the investigation.
Neal Strom, who is acting as a family spokesman, told The Associated Press that the victim has had “profound emotional and physical disabilities throughout his life.” He did not elaborate.
Cook County prosecutors identified the suspects as Brittany Covington and Tesfaye Cooper, both of Chicago, and Hill, of suburban Carpentersville. All are 18. A fourth suspect was identified as Covington’s 24-year-old sister, Tanishia Covington, also of Chicago.
The grandmother of Brittany Covington said the granddaughter she raised from infancy is “not this person.”
“I’m so upset, my head is about to bust open,” said Priscilla Covington of Chicago. “I don’t know if someone influenced her … She had her ups and down. (She) was a good person. I’m so confused.”
In Washington, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said the beating demonstrated “a level of depravity that is an outrage to a lot of Americans.” He said he had not yet spoken to President Barack Obama about the attack in the president’s hometown.
The video emerged at a time when police dealings with Chicago’s black community are being closely watched. Less than a year ago, the nation’s third-largest police force was sharply criticized by a task force for using excessive force and honoring a code of silence.
The department has also been the subject of a long civil-rights investigation by the Justice Department, which is expected to report its findings soon.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
So where’s Obama?
Where’s Jesse?
They’re all such phonies. Glad their days are over.
hey !! we’re so gangster, let’s live stream our felonies for all the world to see !!
how awesome !! lmao !! at least they can’t say “it wasn’t me” when they get to court.
sad but true tho, you only hear from obama, sharpton, jackson and all the other race baiters when there’s a chance they can blame a white boy for the incident at hand. well, the shoe’s on the other foot now, and their silence is deafening.
this particular group of animals who kidnapped and beat up a special needs person should never see the light of day again, but guess what ? there’s another bunch of racist thugs just like them in almost every city and every state, who think just like them, and applaud their actions.
This is a classic example of a hate crime. These four thugs should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. If found guilty they should be kept caged up for a long time. They are a danger to civilized people. The best way to keep things like this from happening again is to make an example out of these four by giving them long prison sentences.
On the local ABC news last night, the anchor stated that the perpetrators were being charged with their actions as a hate crime, not because the victim was white, but because the victim was mentally challenged.
Welcome to Barrack Husein Obama’s America!!
Where was Obama’s public outcry?? Where was Loretta Lynch’s moral outcry??
Truly a sickening deafening silence by this worthless administration.
I couldn’t have said it any better!
yes definetly,really long,like life
Tall tree, short piece of rope!!!
Either that, or six good lashes with a “cat ‘o nine tails”…. good old-fashioned whippings did marvels for those kind of inhuman folk…they’d never do that crime again as well as being a marvelous non-incentive for violent crime to any others that might be so inclined! (Singapore is a good example!)
Tall tree, short rope!!!
There are some instances where I think that death is appropriate, but this is not one of them and neither is the Roof murderer. These are young people and should be taught a lesson. You cannot teach a dead person anything, you only cause him to forget everything he has learned and remove any future influence. Justin W has the correct idea, but they should be imprisoned only with their own age groups and forced to read and learn. NO TV, NO Iphone, No Internet, only good quality books for many years.