Silke Jasso
According to Chicago police, four people were taken into custody on Wednesday and are expected to be charged after a Facebook Live video showed a young white man being tied up and verbally and physically attacked by several others.
Videos by Rare
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Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson described the young man as having “mental health challenges” and said that his treatment in the video was sickening. In the clip, the young man was showed restrained with duct tape over his mouth, while an African-American man holding a knife cut his clothes and scalp.
“Fuck Donald Trump; fuck white people,” the African-American man says.
The video was shot by a young African-American woman, who frequently turns the camera to face herself and a few other people while laughing.
Police say the victim knew at least one of the attackers and went voluntarily with his acquaintance to the city in a stolen van. He was seen by police after the incident looking very distressed and was taken to the hospital, where it was determined that he was stable but traumatized. Officers later went to the residence of the attack where signs of struggle linked the victim to that location.
Johnson says police are investigating into whether or not the attack was a hate crime, but so far there has been no indication that politics or race played a role.
“Some of this is just stupidity,” he said. “People just ranting about something they think might make a headline. We’ll keep investigating, and we’ll let the facts guide us on how this concludes.”
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