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04/24/2024 11:49:25 am

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4 Young Adults Charged with Hate Crime over Chicago Torture Shown on Facebook

Four African-American Young Adults Charged for Assaulting a White Man

(Photo : YouTube Screenshot) Left to right: Tesfaya Cooper, 18; Jordan Hill, 18; Tanishia Covington, 24; Brittany Covington, 18 - all were charged with hate-crime cases for kidnapping an 18-year-old white man with special needs.

Cook Country prosecutors in Chicago, Illinois, filed hate-crime charges against four African-American suspects who kidnapped an 18-year-old white man with special needs. The assaulters were also indicted with aggravated unlawful restraint and aggravated battery with deadly weapon.

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Jordan Hill, Brittany Covington, and Tesfaye Cooper, all 18, and 24-year-old Tanishia Covington are expected to appear in a Chicago court on Friday with Hill further arraigned for robbery and possession of a stolen motor vehicle. All the suspects, except for Covington, will face additional charges of residential burglary.

The victim was last seen at McDonald's on New Year's Eve where he was to meet up with Hill who is an acquaintance from school, Chicago Area North Detectives Commander Kevin Duffin said. When he did not return home the next day, his parents reported him missing and was found days later by Chicago police.

On the disturbing Facebook Live video that was already taken down, the assailants made audible disparaging remarks against white people and obscenities about the newly elected president Donald Trump. The captive was allegedly tortured and tied up for approximately six hours in the Covington sisters' apartment on the West Side, police said.

The victim was made to drink from a toilet bowl, had a part of his scalp removed with a knife, and was gagged and beaten. He managed to escape the apartment while the two female suspects were absorbed in conversing with the angry neighbor who threatened to call the cops.

The 18-year-old was found walking on the street "bloodied and battered" with his tank top inside out. "He was very discombobulated, he was injured, he was confused," Officer Michael Donnelly said.

"The actions in that video are reprehensible," Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said in a press conference. He added, "There was never a question whether or not this incident qualified to be investigated as a hate crime, but as I said yesterday, we need to base the investigation on facts and not emotion."

A day after the presidential election in November, a group of people was recorded beating a 49-year-old man in North Lawndale while yelling "You voted Trump" and "Don't vote Trump." Four people were charged in connection with the incident. 

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