Chicago police have arrested four suspects after a Facebook Live broadcast appeared to show a man bound, gagged and brutally attacked amid shouts of “fuck Donald Trump”.
The footage, which was live-streamed on Facebook, showed several people taunting and assaulting the man while he was sitting in the corner of a room, restrained and with his mouth taped closed.
Police superintendent Eddie Johnson told reporters late Wednesday that the suspects, who are likely to be charged in the next 24 hours, would face “the full weight of the Chicago police department”.
“Video of a brutal act towards an adult male with mental health challenges made its way onto social media,” Johnson said. “The images in the video put on display the brazenness of the offenders who assaulted the victim and then broadcast it for the entire world to see.”
Police said all four suspects, two men and two women, all of whom they said were “young adults”, were in custody and being questioned.
Asked about the shouts of “fuck Trump” and “fuck white people” heard in the video, police commander Kevin Duffin said they would form part of their investigation into whether the attack constituted a hate crime. He added that investigators were attempting to determine “whether or not this is sincere or just stupid ranting and raving”.
The individuals captured on video tormenting the victim are black. The victim, who at one point appears to be forced to shout the words “fuck Trump”, is white.
Duffin added the victim, who is from the suburbs of Chicago, was a school acquaintance of one of the four suspects. “It’s quite a possibility it is a kidnapping,” Duffin said, noting that the suspects stole a van in the suburbs and “brought him out to Chicago”.
He said the victim had been reported missing and spent at least 24 hours – and possibly up to 48 hours – with the suspects.
“He’s traumatized by the incident and it’s very tough to communicate with him at this point,” he said. “It took most of the night for him to calm down enough to be able to talk to us.”
Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told the Guardian that the department was considering a range of possible hate crime charges but did not believe the suspects attacked the victim due to his race.
“This group of individuals was not traveling around looking to apprehend a white man,” he said. “He was not targeted because he was white.”
The disturbing footage, which gained a wider audience when it was shared on Wednesday via YouTube, lasts around 30 minutes and, at one point, appeared to have 16,000 Facebook views. Large parts consist of a woman, who police confirmed is among the suspects, smoking and talking animatedly into the camera.
She appears to respond to real-time comments from other Facebook users. “My sister said it’s not funny,” the woman said. A male voice interjects: “Tell Donald Trump that’s not funny.”
The references to the president-elect are peppered throughout the video.
CPD press conference regarding disturbing live social media video depicting a battery ; victim was tied up https://t.co/jDrjfz4sJV
— Chicago Police (@Chicago_Police) January 5, 2017
At another point, a male suspect appears to take a knife to the top of the victim’s head. Subsequent footage appears to show the victim bleeding.
“Look at him, tied up,” one man can be heard saying, laughing and threatening to put the victim “in a trunk”. A suspect appears to grab the victim by his neck and tighten the ties around him.
“I’ll torture the fuck out of you,” a man later said in the video, looking at the camera. Another male voice can be heard: “There’s going to be a murder here.”
Police said the victim was discovered by patrol officers on Tuesday, disoriented and confused and transported to hospital for treatment. Officers later responded to a battery at a residence nearby where “they discovered signs of a struggle and damage to the property” and linked the case to the hospitalized man, police said.
A Facebook spokesperson said in a statement: “We do not allow people to celebrate or glorify crimes on Facebook and have removed the original video for this reason. In many instances, though, when people share this type of content, they are doing so to condemn violence or raise awareness about it. In that case, the video would be allowed.”