Cops: Teen Girl's Gang Rape Was on Facebook Live

40 people watched without calling police
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 22, 2017 12:33 AM CDT
Cops: 40 People Watched Teen's Gang Rape Online, Didn't Call Police
Police say they located the girl Tuesday morning and took her to Comer Children's Hospital.   (Chicago Police Department)

Around 40 people watched a 15-year-old girl being gang-raped on Facebook Live and none of them bothered to call authorities, police in Chicago say. Police say the girl, who went missing on Sunday, was tracked down after her mother showed Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson screenshots of the disturbing attack on Monday afternoon and he immediately assembled a team of investigators, reports the Chicago Sun-Times. Facebook was told to take the video down and investigators located the girl Tuesday morning after working "around the clock," police say. The girl was taken to a children's hospital, where police say she's in stable condition, NBC News reports.

The superintendent "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," a police spokesman tells the Chicago Tribune. No arrests have been announced yet, but police say they've identified several persons of interest. Reginald King, the girl's uncle, tells the Tribune that he believes the attackers were part of a 50-strong gang of teen boys, known as the "beam team," that has been terrorizing the girl's Lawndale neighborhood. "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," he says. (Another sickening Chicago attack aired on Facebook Live led to hate crime charges for four people.)

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