CHICAGO _ Even though she's a freshman at Lane Tech, the 15-year-old wanted to go watch some junior high basketball games with her uncle on Saturday. Afterward, they had pizza and had a sleepover. They went to church Sunday morning.
After dropping her off at home Sunday, the girl went missing. The next time Reginald King saw his niece, it was on a recording _ and she was being sexually assaulted by more than one assailant, he said.
"It didn't look like she was there of her own volition," King said of the recording that was broadcast on Facebook Live, at one point drawing about 40 viewers.
Authorities Tuesday said no arrests have been made in what appears to be a case of sexual assault. Anthony Guglielmi, a Chicago Police Department spokesman, tweeted about 3 p.m.: "CPD making good progress identifying persons of interest in 10th Dist assault. Interviews ongoing but no formal suspects named yet."
Alderman Mike Scott (24th), who said he gets routine updates from police on crimes in his district, said he was told about 11 a.m. that one juvenile had been arrested. He said because of the pending investigation he can't comment on whether more arrests are forthcoming.
"But what I would say is there were more individuals in the video so I'm sure they're looking for other folks," he said.
After spending countless hours canvassing the Lawndale neighborhood where she went missing, King said it's clear to him her tormentors are a part of a group of thugs who have terrorized an entire neighborhood for long enough.
About 40 hours after being reported missing, the 15-year-old basketball standout was reunited with her mother and taken to a hospital where she was being examined for injuries and, her uncle said, being evaluated for possible sexual assault at the hands of as many six offenders.
King said after he dropped off his niece, who was the valedictorian of her eighth-grade class, she started walking through the neighborhood to go to a nearby store for a snack. That's the last time she was seen until her eventual recovery about 7:45 a.m. Tuesday, he said. Her mother filed a police report when her daughter didn't come home Sunday.
"It hurts me to my core because I was one of the last people to see her," King said. "I want to make sure this never happens to anybody else's kids, and if that starts with taking down this one group, I'll make that my life's mission.
"If we don't stand up and do anything about it now, who knows if the next kid this happens to, maybe they don't get to come home. Maybe this doesn't get to have a happy ending."
King said a teenager alerted him to the assault on Facebook Live, adding: "This is one of the bravest things I've ever seen a kid do. There were adults who saw this. None of them had the wherewithal to say, 'Hey, I gotta call someone.'"
Chicago activist Andrew Holmes got the video to police and the girl's mother was shown screen shots and was able to identify her daughter.
The girl's mother ran into Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson at one of the district stations, and Johnson took an immediate interest in the case, said Guglielmi, the police spokesman.
"The Supt. was visibly upset when he saw the pictures of the girl and was dismayed when he learned that people were watching the incident live and no one called police," Guglielmi wrote in an email to the Chicago Tribune.
"The Superintendent immediately escorted the mother into the district and called the Chief of Detectives to order a team of investigators to respond to the District immediately."
Police also contacted Facebook; the video was taken down.
The girl's attack was at least the fourth Chicago crime caught on Facebook Live.
When Facebook emailed responses to Tribune questions around the time the last publicly broadcast crime _ that of a special needs man being tormented by a group who broadcast his abuse _ the company said it does not allow people "to celebrate or glorify crimes" on its network.
Facebook has a team on call 24 hours a day to respond to reports of inappropriate live videos as they're happening, the company said. A viewer can interrupt a live stream if a violation of Facebook's community standards occurs, and it takes only one report for something to be reviewed.
That means if just one of the 40 or so people who watched the video of the teenage girl being attacked, with liquids thrown on her and some argument over whether the lights should be on or off, the video might have come down sooner.
"Live video on Facebook is a new and growing format," the company said in a statement about the technology and its community standards. "We've learned a lot over the past few months, and will continue to make improvements to this experience wherever we can."
The company also pointed out the benefits of sharing live video of graphic content. "In many instances ... when people share this type of content, they are doing so to condemn violence or raise awareness about it. In that case, the video would be allowed."
For investigators Tuesday, it seemed at least one of the benefits was the relative ease of catching some of the six men who might have hurt the teen girl, who returned to her mother with a busted lip and puffy cheeks, suggesting she'd been hit in the face at least once.
The girl's uncle said he believes the teens who attacked his niece went to school on Monday; he believes one or more adults aided in her captivity.
"Obviously there are adults aiding and abetting them because they kids _ they can't drive, they don't have a house. There are adults perpetuating this, enabling this criminal activity," King said.
He said one of the other painful issues for the family has been the fact that the girl was reported missing in November, which, King said, painted her to some as a chronic runaway. That couldn't be further from the truth, he said.
It is because she is such a good student and responsible daughter that when she was an hour late coming home last fall, her mother was incredibly worried and notified police. A community alert went out for a missing persons case, although Guglielmi said it never was escalated to the point of an active criminal investigation. The girl returned home a short time later, but King said there are people who don't see that as concerned parenting, but rather a problematic child who perhaps went with the boys voluntarily.
"That's not her, not even close. But tell you what, even if she was, no one human deserves what happened to her. No matter what," he said.
The girl was described as in "good condition," though she may show signs of trauma. King said it would be a tough thing for even the strongest of people to process.
"She has a great family, a wonderful mom, her cousins, her sisters, basketball team sisters. We gonna do our best to make sure she comes out on the other side well and whole," King said. "That she can find enough peace to persevere."
King said he learned about a group of 35 to 50 teenage boys while family and friends went door to door, distributing fliers with his niece's photo on them. That's when they learned about a group called the "beam team," who have been terrorizing a few block section of the neighborhood.
"They are basically holding an entire community hostage. I literally saw adults, 60 years old, my elders, my parents' age, cringing in fear. We were like, 'they're kids,' and they were like, 'no, they shooting people, they killing people, they robbing people,'" King said. "Over an extended period of time, they making it where kids can't go to the store and get a snack and old people can't come out and sit on the porch and little kids can't play outside. Me for one, I'm not standing for it."
In particular, King said, they heard a lot of reports of violence against women, particularly misogynistic crimes like hitting women.
"As a society we have to ask ourselves, how did it get to the point where young men feel like it's a badge of honor to sexually assault a girl or run a train on a girl, to not only do this to a girl, but broadcast it for the world?"
Scott, the alderman, said he's heard of the "beam team," which he referred to as a "mob" _ similar to what many people formerly knew as gangs. In the past, larger gangs controlled bigger territories and were involved in money-making enterprises. When they were cut down, the smaller cliques, factions or mobs sprang up but without the older gang leaders, the mobs are full only of teenage boys who may control just a block or two.
"Back then, you didn't mess with seniors, you didn't go into schools, there was a code and a rulebook and those things have kind of gone out the window with the dismantling of the larger gangs," he said.
The girl who was attacked, he said, is clearly bright for attending Lane Tech, a special enrollment school requiring high test scores. He said his wife went to Lane Tech.
"I know that they produce very good children and turn them into good adults, good products in society," he said.
"I have a young daughter who is 12, who will soon be going to high school and it just made me give pause to the people she associates with because obviously this was someone this young lady knew or felt comfortable with. It makes you want to assess who they're spending time with but at the end of the day, you can't protect them from everything. We pray for the young lady that's involved."
