Four arrested after video shows group assaulting disabled man

Posted: Jan 5, 2017

The shaky video shows a terrified young man in a gray hooded sweatshirt and dark pants crouching in a corner, his wrists and neck bound with orange bands, his mouth taped shut. A young woman films as two young men slash the sleeves of his shirt with knives, then take turns punching him, slapping him and stomping on his head. At one point, one of the men can be seen cutting the victim’s hair and scalp with a knife, and the victim is later shown bleeding from his injuries. As the victim cowers with his back to the wall, someone can be heard repeatedly shouting, “f— Donald Trump” and “f— white people.” Throughout the 28-minute video — which focuses mostly on the young woman behind the camera — the group laughs, jokes and listens to music as the victim sits motionless on the floor. About halfway through, someone says the man “represents Trump,” and threatens to put him in the trunk of a car and “put a brick on the gas.” It’s unclear what happens to the victim when the video cuts off. Chicago police on patrol said they found the disoriented victim walking down the street Tuesday in shorts, despite the frigid cold, and took him to the hospital for treatment. They said he was mentally disabled and appeared to be “in crisis.” Shortly after, police said, they responded to a battery call at residence on the same block and took four suspects — two adult males and two adult females — into custody. On Wednesday, those four people were being held on suspicion of abusing and torturing the man in a possible hate crime police say the group streamed on Facebook Live, which allows users to broadcast real-time events from their mobile phones and has increasingly been employed to air disturbing and often criminal conduct, along with personal rants, cat videos and hoaxes. Police declined to give the race of the suspects or the victim. In the video, the suspects appear black. The victim appears to be white. ;