Charges Filed In Videotaped Beating Posted On Facebook
DETROIT (WWJ) - Charges have been filed against two young people who beat their 14-old cousin, and then posted it on Facebook. The video showed the two cousins aged 20 and 16 whipping the teen with belts.
Tajenae Demekiea Grady, 20, of Redford, will face a count of assault with a dangerous weapon, a felony punishable by up to four years in prison. The other cousin, a sixteen-year-old Redford male, will also face an assault with a dangerous weapon charge under juvenile adjudication, pursuant to state law.
The victim had been accused of some petty stealing in school last fall, and when visiting his Warren home, police say the two cousins decided to teach him a lesson by whipping him while a third family member, a 12-year-old, shot video on his cell phone.
"This beating shocks the conscience," said Macomb County Prosecutor Smith. "This sort of savagery will not be tolerated within our borders."
The pre-teen who recorded the abuse on his cell phone initially distributed that video to neighbors and it then went viral.