Four suspects in the case of the horrific torture of a mentally disabled man in Chicago are now facing multiple charges, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. Jordan Hill, 18; Tesfaye Cooper, 18; Brittany Covington, 28; and Tanishia Covington, 24, are all expended to appear in bond court Friday.
The four suspects are all facing charges of hate crime, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated unlawful restraint and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. Hill also faces charges of robbery, residential burglary and possession of a stolen motor vehicle, while Cooper and Brittany Covington are also charged with residential burglary.
The group is accused of holding the 18-year-old victim hostage and torturing him in an apartment on the city's West Side, Chicago police spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said, according to the Tribune.
The horrific incident was displayed across Facebook in several videos. In one video on a woman's Facebook page, a man threatens the victim with a knife. Someone tells the victim, "Kiss the floor, bitch!" and "Nobody can help you anymore." At another point, someone told the victim to "say 'I love black people.’”
At around 5:30 p.m., officers were called to the scene about half a block away from where the victim was picked up, responding to a call about a battery in progress. At the scene, officers "discovered signs of a struggle and damage to property and were able to link this evidence to the disoriented male," police noted in a statement.
After officers were made aware of the video circulating via social media, they were certain of the connection between the disoriented man and the battery, the Tribune notes.
The victim's family said that they had not heard from him since Dec. 31. Police in Streamwood, Ill., who were leading the investigation into the disappearance said that the victim's parents started "receiving text messages from persons claiming to be holding him captive."
Police believe that the four suspects held him for about 24 hours before releasing him.
“It makes you wonder what would make individuals treat somebody like that,” Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said, calling the videos "just sickening." “I’ve been a cop for 28 years and I’ve seen things that you shouldn’t see in a lifetime, but it still amazes me how you still see things that you just shouldn’t.”
Read more at the Chicago Tribune.