Chicago girl allegedly sexually assaulted on Facebook Live as 40 watched

Associated Press in Chicago
Wednesday 22 March 2017 12.38 GMT

A 15-year-old girl in Chicago was apparently sexually assaulted by five or six men or boys on Facebook Live, and none of the roughly 40 people who watched the live video reported the attack to police, authorities have said.

It is the second time in recent months that the Chicago police department has investigated an apparent attack streamed live on Facebook. In January, four people were arrested after mobile phone footage showed them allegedly taunting and beating a mentally disabled man.

Police only learned of the latest alleged attack when the girl’s mother approached Supt Eddie Johnson on Monday afternoon as he was leaving a station in the Lawndale neighbourhood in the West Side, a police department spokesman said. She told him her daughter had been missing since Sunday and showed him screengrab photos of the alleged assault.

The spokesman said Johnson immediately ordered detectives to investigate and the department asked Facebook to take down the video, which it did.

The spokesman said detectives had found the girl and reunited her with her family. He said she had told detectives she knew at least one of her alleged attackers, but it remained unclear how well they knew each other. Investigators are questioning several people, but no one is considered a suspect yet and no arrests have been made.

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