Tesfaye Cooper, left, Jordan Hill, Tanishia Covington and Brittany Covington were each charged with a hate crime. (Photo: CPD)
The four black suspects in Chicago who tortured and beat a white man with “mental health challenges” in a video they streamed on Facebook Live, now face hate crime charges. In what the Chicago Police Department called a “disturbing” and “brutal” video, the victim was shown tied up with his mouth taped shut “for the entire world to see” by a group alleging he was a Trump supporter.
The two male and two female suspects–Jordan Hill, 18, Tesfaye Cooper, 18, Brittany Covington, 18, and Tanishia Covington, 24–were scheduled to appear in Central Bond Court on Friday afternoon. In addition to the hate crime charges, the suspects face a slew of other charges including aggravated battery.
“The video is reprehensible,” said police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi. It is unclear whether the victim, who was kidnapped and taken to an apartment on the city’s west side, was even in fact a supporter of President-elect Donald J. Trump.
The charges were announced after the Chicago Police Department came under fire for comments made by the superintendent at a press conference that seemed to downplay the severity of the crimes.
[brid video=”103229″ player=”2077″ title=”Racist Black Thugs Force Kidnapped White Trump Supporter to Drink Toilet Water”]
In the video, one of the suspects can be heard yelling, “f*ck Donald Trump n*gger, f*ck white people, boy!” The victim was a classmate of one of the suspects and held hostage for at least 24 hours and potential as long as 48 hours. They said, because he is special needs, police considered him a high-risk missing person. Mr. Guglielmi said police believe he was taken in northwest suburban Streamwood and driven to Chicago in a stolen vehicle.
Hill, who is from Carpentersville, was charged with aggravated kidnapping, hate crime, aggravated unlawful restraint, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, robbery and residential burglary. Cooper was charged with aggravated kidnapping, hate crime, aggravated unlawful restraint, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and residential burglary;
Brittany Covington was charged with aggravated kidnapping, hate crime, aggravated unlawful restraint, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and residential burglary. Tanishia Covington was charged with aggravated kidnapping, hate crime, aggravated unlawful restraint and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.
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wills Ten / January 5, 2017
Four under represented and disenfranchised teens use nonconventional means to express themselves.
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