SHAMEFUL: Suspects charged with hate crime after disabled teen tortured and beaten on Facebook Live
Police in Chicago have charged four black suspects with a hate crime after a disabled white teenager was beaten and tortured live on Facebook.
Jordan Hill, 18, Tesfaye Cooper, 18, Brittany Covington, 18, and her sister, Tanishia Covington, 24, were all also charged with aggravated kidnapping, aggravated unlawful restraint and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. See their full photos after the cut...
The victim knew Hill from school and had initially met up with him voluntarily.
Police said Hill had picked him up in a stolen van which the pair had slept in before travelling to the Covington sisters' apartment on Tuesday morning.
Hours later, a 'play fight' between the victim and Hill got out of hand and the incident turned sinister.
The boy, who suffers from learning difficulties, was bound and gagged as he was kicked, punched and slapped by the suspects.
In highly upsetting footage, the perpetrators can be heard laughing and saying "F*** Donald Trump" and "F*** white people" as they cut the boy's clothes.
Facebook removed the video after being alerted to what was going on.
The boy's parents were receiving text messages form the perpetrators throughout the ordeal.
Police were contacted and officers eventually found the boy wandering the streets of the West Lexington area of the city on Tuesday afternoon.
He was disorientated and was taken to hospital for treatment.
Superintendent Eddie Johnson told a news conference "Let me be very clear, the actions in that video are reprehensible.
"That, along with racism, have absolutely no place in the city of Chicago. Or anywhere else for that matter."
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