CHICAGO _ Four people are being questioned by police for allegedly being involved in the attack of a mentally disabled man broadcast on Facebook Live that included obscenities about Donald Trump, authorities said.
A white man was found wandering the Homan Square neighborhood in shorts with a black man late Tuesday afternoon, Chicago police said.
Police believe the man, who is mentally disabled, may have been missing from Crystal Lake, and may have been attacked at a home about a block east from where police found him, police said.
Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said authorities are still determining what charges to bring against the four people who were arrested in the case, and that charging them with a hate crime is a possibility.
"It's sickening. It makes you wonder what would make individuals treat somebody like that," Johnson said of the video. "I've been a cop for 28 years and I've seen things that you shouldn't see. It still amazes me."
"I'm not going to say it shocked me but it was sickening."
The video shows a woman and other people cutting the shirt off a man with his mouth taped shut, cutting the man's hair off with a knife and pushing the man's head with a foot, and while using profanity against Trump and "white people."
The woman can be seen smoking, while arguing with someone else on the video about who might see it.
By Wednesday evening, the original posting of the video had been taken down, but had been reposted by numerous people on YouTube, Facebook and other sites.
The man found Tuesday is believed to have disappeared from where he lives, met up with someone he considered a friend, and then got involved with a group of people who stole a van from Streamwood, Ill., according to police.
Soon after police found him about 5:25 p.m. Tuesday, officers were called to the home, and found signs of a struggle and property damage that they linked to the man, according to a police media notification. The victim was taken to a local hospital for treatment.
The officers later found out about the Facebook Live video, which shows "a battery of an adult male (who) is believed to be the same" man, and which detectives consider "credible," according to the police release.
"After his treatment at the hospital, he was released and his parents came into area north detective division," said Area North Cmdr. Kevin Duffin, in a news conference Wednesday evening at Chicago police headquarters.
The four people being questioned _ two men and two women _ have given videotaped statements, Duffin said. The Cook County state's attorney's office was interviewing the victim and his family and charges were expected within 24 hours.
Police will "determine whether or not this is sincere or just stupid ranting and raving" to help decide whether to pursue hate crime charges, Duffin said.
