Four suspects in Chicago have been arrested after they filmed themselves kidnapping and torturing a mentally disabled man on Facebook Live.
Chicago police were notified of the video on Tuesday afternoon. Brittany Herring, one of the individuals in the video, streamed the crime on her Facebook page. The video shows the victim tied up in the corner of an apartment in the 3400 block of West Lexington on the West Side, as the suspects ripped his clothing, fingered a bleeding wound on the top of his head, and assaulted him while yelling “F*ck Donald Trump” and “F*ck White People!”
The victim, who is now recovering, was held hostage for at least 24 hours and as long as 48 hours. He was allegedly a classmate of one of the suspects. On Tuesday, police spotted the victim walking on a street on the West Side wearing shorts, which they found unusual due to the cold weather, so they stopped him. The victim appeared disoriented so they took him to the hospital where he was treated for his injuries.
The suspects are either in their late teens or early 20s. Judging from Brittany’s Facebook page, she’s old enough to drink.
“It’s quite a possibility that this is a kidnapping and that’s certainly one of the charges we’ll be seeking if it turns out to be that. But, he’s traumatized by the incident and it’s tough to communicate with him at this point,” said Chicago Police Commander Kevin Duffin.
Despite the mention of Donald Trump, Chicago Police do not believe the crime was politically motivated. They also do not believe the incident has any times to the Black Lives Matter movement, despite Trump supporters using #BLMKidnapping as the official hashtag for the video on Facebook.
“I think some of it is just stupidity, people just ranting about something that they think might make a headline. I don’t think that at this point we have anything concrete to really point us in that direction, but we’ll keep investigating and we’ll let the facts guide us on how this concludes,” Supt. Johnson said.
Watch the video below.
