Chicago Police Arrest Teen for Facebook Live Sexual Assault

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Summary: A teenager has been arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a girl on Facebook Live. 

On Sunday, Chicago police said that they arrested a 14-year-old boy in connection with the sexual assault of a teenage girl on Facebook Live. The Facebook Live attack was seen by 40 people who did not report the crime to authorities, the Huffington Post reported.

  

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The victim, a high school freshman, had gone missing in late March. Her mother said she had gone to the store, and she grew nervous when the 15-year-old didn’t return.

Authorities believe the girl was assaulted on a Sunday, the same day she had gone missing. The assailants videotaped her rape and showed it on Facebook Live. In the video, six men or teenage boys attacked the girl while 40 viewers watched. None of the viewers reported the incident to the police.

“The video was upsetting not only because of its content, but because there were 40 or so live viewers and no one thought to call authorities,” Chicago police spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said to The Associated Press.

The males who had raped the high schooler on camera kept her hostage until Tuesday, when she was located and taken to Comer Children’s Hospital where she was reunited with her mother.  The girl’s uncle had learned of the Facebook Live rape, and he had showed the mother screenshots, which she took to the police.

Facebook removed the video after they were contacted by investigators. A company spokesperson told The Huffington Post that they would not allow content that glorified violence.

“This is a hideous crime and we do not allow this kind of content on Facebook. We take our responsibility to keep people safe on Facebook very seriously and will remove videos that depict sexual assault and are shared to glorify violence,” Facebook said.

After the incident, the appalled police urged its citizens to not look away when they witnessed crimes that were broadcast online.

“If you see a crime being committed on social media, please call the police immediately to report these crimes,” the Chicago police urged on their Facebook page. “As social media has no jurisdictional borders, call the police jurisdiction in which you live, to report what are viewing.”

At Sunday’s press conference, the police also said that were expecting to charge a second teenage in the near future and that other arrests will happen. He could not disclose details due to the sensitivity of the case and the age of the suspected assailants.

“The young men responsible, they should be ashamed of themselves,” Eddie Johnson, Chicago’s Police Superintendent, said. “Now they are going to be held accountable.”

Johnson said that at least one adult was involved.

The 14-year-old arrested faces felony counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault, manufacturing of child pornography and dissemination of child pornography, NPR stated.

The victim and her mother have been moved to a safe space, according to NPR, because after the kidnapping and rape, they received disgusting threats and kids from the neighborhood were ringing their doorbell in search of the girl.