A young woman allegedly used Facebook Live to broadcast the beating of a man. She has been arrested along with three others in connection with the gruesome attack, Chicago police said on Wednesday.
Victim in a state of trauma and shock
In this disturbing video, a man is shown cowering in the corner of a room. He is tied up with his mouth covered, with attackers kicking and punching him. According to CNN, they even cut into his forehead with a knife, shouting “f*ck Donald Trump” and “f*ck white people.”
In the 30-minute long Facebook video, the attackers can be seen dropping cigarette ash on the victim, pushing his head back with a foot, cutting his clothes and drawing blood by cutting off some of his hair with a knife.
The victim is an 18-year-old young man with special needs. He was taken from the suburbs, said police. The disoriented young man was wandering the street “in crisis” Tuesday afternoon when patrol officers found him and took him to a hospital, notes CNN.
Eleventh District Captain Steven Sesso said the man was very traumatized, and it took almost the entire night to calm him down to the point where he could talk to the police. The exact duration for which he was missing is unknown, but it could have been between 24 and 48 hours.
Beating broadcast on Facebook Live
After viewing the Facebook video, the officers determined that the victim was the man found on the street and that the people arrested were involved, said Chicago Police Department Superintendent Eddie Johnson. At a news conference on Wednesday, Eddie said that two men and two women are suspects and in custody awaiting formal charges.
“It’s sickening,” he said. “It makes you wonder what would make individuals treat somebody like that.”
Commander Kevin Duffin said the victim knew at least one of the accused attackers from a school in the suburbs. Police are considering kidnapping charges despite the possibility of the victim voluntarily getting into a van with the group, notes CNN.
The video broadcast on Facebook Live shows that the victim is white, while the attackers are all black. For this reason, police are investigating whether hate crime charges are appropriate, Duffin said when reporters asked him if it could be a bias attack.
Facebook has taken down the original video from the suspect’s Facebook profile. There have been several such instances involving Facebook Live. In June, a Chicago man was shot dead while live-streaming a video of himself on Facebook.
