Staff ReporterRoughly 40 people tuned in to watch the attack — no one reported it
Chicago Police announced on Twitter Sunday that they had arrested a 14-year-old boy in connection with the sexual assault of a 15-year-old girl that had been streamed live on Facebook in March.
The teenage girl, from Chicago, was allegedly assaulted by five or six males as around 40 people watched on the video streaming service without reporting the attack.
The boy faces felony counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault, manufacturing of child pornography and dissemination of child pornography, police said. They said during a Sunday news conference that an arrest warrant had been issued for a second teenager and that they were actively searching for him.
The girl was reported missing from Chicago’s Lawndale neighborhood after she went to the store and did not return. Then the girl’s mother was alerted to the Facebook Live video of the attack, which she showed to Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson. The girl was found the next day, taken to the hospital and reunited with her family.
Due to the graphic content that I observed, I don’t want to go into the detail of what was on the video, but I want to tell you that the young men responsible, they should be ashamed of themselves, Johnson said during Sunday’s news conference. “They’ve humiliated themselves, they’ve humiliated their families, and now they’re going to be held accountable for what they did.”
Police have said that the attack involved five or six people, and that 40 people watched the assault live on Facebook and did not call the authorities.
“You know, we’ve seen a couple of acts in this city now in the last few months involving social media. And it just disgusts me that people would look at those videos and not pick up the phone and dial 911,” Johnson said.
The girl’s mother told The Associated Press last month her daughter received online threats following the attack.
The Chicago Sun-Times later reported that the girl’s family had been relocated.
The video marks the second time in recent months that Chicago police have investigated an apparent attack that was broadcast live on Facebook.
In January, four people were arrested after video showed them allegedly taunting and beating a mentally disabled man.
Additional reporting by Associated Press
