Police seek 2nd teen in sexual assault streamed live on Facebook
CHICAGO -- Authorities have issued an arrest warrant for another teenage boy in the sexual assault of a 15-year-old Chicago girl that was streamed live on Facebook and they expect to charge others, including one adult.
Police Commander Brendan Deenihan said at a news conference Sunday that investigators are searching for the 15-year-old boy, who is wanted on a sexual assault charge.
On Saturday, authorities announced the first charges in the case. A 14-year-old boy faces charges of aggravated criminal sexual assault and making and disseminating child pornography. They say further charges are expected against an unknown number of others who were involved in the attack last month, which police said in the aftermath involved five or six boys or men.
Deenihan says multiple videos of the attack were made, not just the version that was streamed live. About 40 people viewed the attack live, and none of them reported it to police.
“It disgusts me,” said Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson, CBS Chicago reports. “It makes you wonder, what are we doing as a society, that people watch this and don’t pick up the phone” and alert police.
“The young men responsible should be ashamed of themselves. They’ve humiliated themselves, humiliated their families, and now they’re going to be held accountable for what they did,” he said.
The alleged incident occurred in mid-March. Deenihan said that people continued to “make fun” of the victim in Facebook posts.
“This caused even more trauma for the victim,” Deenihan said. “She is having a difficult time talking about it. On top of that, constant social media bullying.”
Police were not aware of the attack until the girl’s mother approached Johnson as he was leaving a police station on Chicago’s West Side and showed him still images of the video assault. Johnson took the woman into the 10th District police station and immediately put detectives on the case. The department contacted Facebook to take down the video, which it did.
The girl disappeared the day before and initially was reported to police as a missing person. The girl was located on March 21, police said. She was taken to Comer Children’s Hospital and reunited with her family.