Chicago police announced the missing girl has been found. According to Chicago police, the girl was found at 7:45 a.m. yesterday and taken to Comers Children’s Hospital. She remains in hospital in stable condition, was reunited with her mother and questioned by detectives.
According to the teen’s mother, the girl left home Sunday afternoon to go to the store and did not return. An uncle of the girl told her mother he had seen her in a Facebook Live video on Monday morning. The video, since removed by Facebook, allegedly showed her in various stages of undress. Several young men were seen in the video and the girl appeared to be scared. Her mother believes her daughter was being sexually assaulted at the time.
Chicago police were notified in a most unusual way. The girl’s mother approached Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson Monday afternoon as he was leaving a police station on the West Side after a press conference. The teen’s mother showed him several screenshots taken from the Facebook Live video and Johnson quickly dispatched investigators. Police were successful in having Facebook remove the video.
Johnson
told WGN what was more disturbing than the video itself was that about 40 people saw the live streaming and no one bothered to call 911 or do anything about it.
Reginald King, a relative of the teen, said “She was heinously raped, beaten and abused and assaulted on tape—on FB live.” He also said no matter what picture people paint of the girl, a runaway or whatever, nobody deserves that.
This was not the first violent crime in Chicago to be captured on Facebook Live. In June 2016, Antonio Perkins was outside with two of his children and some friends. He was streaming what they were doing on Facebook Live when he was shot and killed.
In January of this year, a Chicago man was seen on video tied up and allegedly assaulted. The perpetrators, who were black, were yelling racist obscenities at the victim who was described as a white mentally challenged man. And a month later, two people including a two-year-old boy were shot to death while travelling in a car. At the time the shots rang out, a passenger in the car was streaming what the occupants were doing on Facebook Live.
SEE ALSO: Four arrested after video shows assault of Chicago man
SEE ALSO: Man livestreaming on Facebook shot to death in Chicago
According to Chicago police, although no arrests have yet been made, the teen knew at least some of her attackers. Police have so far not named any suspects and it is believed they are looking for others who were not known to the girl. Police are also tracking down the owner of the Facebook page where the streaming was done.
