Chicago cops expect more arrests in alleged sexual assault of 15-year-old girl streamed on Facebook Live
An unknown number of others were involved, police said.
— -- Chicago police officials today said they expect more people to be charged in connection with the alleged sexual assault of a 15-year-old Chicago girl that was streamed on Facebook Live.
A 14-year-old boy faces charges of aggravated criminal sexual assault and making and disseminating child pornography in connection to the case, and Police Commander Brendan Deenihan said in a press conference that an arrest warrant has also been issued for another teenage boy, and police expect to charge others, including one adult.
"The detectives working with Facebook have executed several social media search warrants and we were able to eventually identify two of these offenders and secure arrests warrants for them," Deenihan announced.
"One of the offenders [the 14-year-old] ... has now been charged," he said. "There's a second juvenile warrant that is out there and we expect that individual to be arrested soon and then additionally we still have several other offenders that we need to specifically identify and are arrested as well."
About 40 people viewed the attack live, and none of them reported it, police said.
Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson led off the press conference with passionate words about the victim.
"As a father of young women myself, I am so inspired by her strength, and while I know the emotional wounds caused by this savagery will take long to heal, I'm hopeful that her story can be an inspiration to so many other young women who are victimized by bullying and sexual assault," Johnson said.
Johnson said that he was first approached by the 15-year-old girl's mother, who she said "had been missing for more than 24 hours" and then showed him "snapshots of a video which depicted her daughter being sexually assaulted live on the internet."
"No woman should ever be treated the way this young woman was," Johnson said.
Johnson, who has become a recognizable face nationally due to the press conferences he's given regarding Chicago's shooting epidemic, also scolded those who participated.
"Due to the graphic content that I observed, I don't want to go into the details of what was on the video but I want to tell you the young [men] responsible, they should be ashamed of themselves," Johnson said.
"They’ve humiliated themselves, humiliated their families, and now they're going to be held accountable for what they've done," he added.
The case is not the first high profile crime broadcast live on Facebook this year to come out of Chicago.
Earlier in the year, a man was tortured in a Facebook Live video, before eventually escaping his captors.
That case was categorized as a hate crime, and had strong racial overtones, with four black suspects binding and attacking a white special-needs teenager.
The four suspects charged in connection with the attack all pleaded not guilty in February to the charges.
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