Approximately 40 people watched the Facebook Live video reportedly showing a 15-year-old Chicago girl being sexually assaulted by five or six men or boys. However, none of those individuals reported the publicly broadcast incident, authorities said Tuesday.
The Associated Press reports that authorities became involved only when the child’s mother approached Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson late Monday afternoon, saying that her daughter had been missing since Sunday and showing the superintendent screenshots of the alleged assault.
Chicago Police Department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said that Johnson ordered investigators to look into the case, and the department asked Facebook to remove the video, which it did.
On Tuesday the girl was located and reunited with family. Authorities are still conducting interviews.
Guglielmi said that Johnson was “visibly upset” after viewing the video—both by the contents shown and the fact that there were “40 or so live viewers and no one thought to call authorities.”
Read more at the Associated Press.