CHICAGO _ A mentally disabled man attacked in a Facebook Live video was able to escape after a neighbor in the Chicago apartment building threatened to call police because of the noise, authorities said Thursday as hate crime charges were filed.
Two of the attackers followed the neighbor downstairs Tuesday evening and the 18-year-old victim used the distraction to leave the building on the city's West Side, police said at a news conference.
Officers found the man wandering the streets in the Homan Square neighborhood around 5:15 p.m., police said. "I observed him wearing a tank top, inside-out, backwards, jean shorts and sandals on," said Officer Michael Donnelly. "He was bloodied, he was battered.
"He was very discombobulated," he added. "He was injured. He was confused."
According to the video, the man's wrists had been bound and his mouth taped shut as two men cut his shirt with knives, then took turns punching him and stomping his head. One of the men cut the victim's scalp with a knife.
As the man crouched against a wall, someone shouted, "F--- Donald Trump" and "F--- white people."
Four people were arrested after the downstairs neighbor called police because two of the suspects had kicked in her door, angry that she threatened to call 911, according to Area North Cmdr. Kevin Duffin. "They booted her door and they actually grabbed something on their way out," he said.
Jordan Hill, 18, of Carpentersville, Tesfaye Cooper, 18, of Chicago, Brittany Covington, 18, of Chicago, and her sister, Tanishia Covington, 24, of Chicago were all charged with aggravated kidnapping, hate crime, aggravated unlawful restraint and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.
Hill was also charged with robbery, possession of a stolen motor vehicle and residential burglary, and both Cooper and Brittany Covington were charged with residential burglary.
Police said Hill was with the victim when police found him on the street.
All four suspects have given statements admitting to their roles in the attack, police said. They are due in bond court Friday.
Asked about the video that helped in the arrests, Duffin said, "I can't understand why anybody puts anything on Facebook."
Police said Hill knew the victim because they had attended the same school in Aurora. On Saturday, the victim's family dropped him off at a McDonald's in Streamwood to meet Hill, with plans to spend the night at his place.
Hill stole a van before picking up the victim and passed it off as his own, police said. The pair drove to Chicago's West Side, visiting with friends for two days. The victim slept in the van before arriving at the apartment on Lexington apartment where the Covington sisters lived on Tuesday.
Hours into the visit, the victim and Hill were engaged in a "play fight" when it got out of hand, police said. The sisters got angry and tied him up, police said. "That's when the attack begins," Duffin said.
They beat, stomped and cut the victim and made him drink water from the toilet, he said. The victim was tied up for four or five hours until he escaped. After police found him on the street, they discovered that he had been reported missing on Sunday. He was taken to a hospital and reunited with his family.
Superintendent Eddie Johnson said there "was never a question" whether the case would be investigated as a hate crime, but police wanted to check all the facts of the case first. He said the racial comments of the attackers and the disabilities of the victim both played a role in the decision.
"Let me be very clear, the actions in that video are reprehensible," Johnson told reporters at the news conference at police headquarters. "That, along with racism, have absolutely no place in the city of Chicago. Or anywhere else for that matter."
At a separate event, Mayor Rahm Emanuel called the acts on the video "sickening," adding that anyone who views it is "sickened by it." He declined further comment, citing the criminal charges, but also said "there is more to our city than that."
Emanuel then turned back to the topic of his news conference: Chicago tourism.
At least two of the suspects have arrest records.
Tanishia Covington was arrested on March 26 while a passenger in a blue 2004 Chevrolet Silverado that had been reported stolen, records show. She was charged with criminal trespass to a vehicle and in April pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a year of supervision.
She was also charged in 2014 with misdemeanor domestic battery and endangering the life and health of a child for slapping a woman twice in the face as the woman held a 10-month-old infant, according to records. A judge granted a one-month emergency order of protection which was not renewed and case was dropped when the victim didn't appear in court.
Brittany Covington was arrested on Oct. 4 after entering a CVS store with three other people and allegedly stealing liquor. She was charged but the case was dismissed when the complaining witness didn't show up in court.
