The four individuals arrested after broadcasting a Facebook Live video on Tuesday that appeared to show them torturing a mentally disabled man have been charged with kidnapping, battery, and hate crimes, Chicago authorities said Thursday.
The accused individuals—two men and two women—appear to be black, and the alleged victim appears to be white. One individual shouts, “Fuck Donald Trump” and “Fuck white people” during the video, which is approximately 30 minutes long. A Chicago Police Department commander named Kevin Duffin said at a Thursday afternoon press conference that the hate crime charges were justified by both the victim’s race and his mental condition.
The individuals charged are Brittany Covington, her sister Tanishia Covington, Tesfaye Cooper, and Jordan Hill. Police say that the alleged victim, who was treated and released after being discovered on Tuesday, wandering outside in a disoriented state, by a passing police officer, was an acquaintance of Hill’s and that he appears to have been bound and assaulted only after having spent several days with Hill voluntarily. The alleged victim apparently escaped from his captors when two of them left the apartment in which the victim was being kept to confront a neighbor who had complained that they were making too much noise.
