Facebook Live Attack: Hate crime charges for four people accused of beating disabled man

Four people are facing hate crime charges after broadcasting themselves beating, burning and torturing a kidnapped man on Facebook Live.

The Chicago Police Department arrested four people and charged them with hate crimes in connection to the attack, according to the Washington Post. They are Jordan Hill, 18; Tesfaye Cooper, 18; Brittany Covington, 18; and Tanishia Covington, 24.

The department shared their mug shots on Twitter.

The Facebook Live broadcast shows the suspects laughing as they attack the bound, unnamed white victim, who Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson described as having "mental health challenges" At one point, one of the suspects appears to slice the victim's scalp with a knife.

"Fuck Donald Trump," they shout as they beat him. "Fuck white people."

Police said they found the 18-year-old victim wearing shorts as he roamed a Chicago street on Thursday, shaken and "in crisis." Cooper, Covington and Brittany and Tanishia Covington were apprehended nearby shortly afterward when officers were summoned to the same block for a battery call.

Though he did not say whether the group had been motivated by the victim's race or by his mental disability, Johnson said their actions were reprehensible in their callousness.

"The images in the video put on display the brazenness of the offenders who assaulted the victim and then broadcast it for the entire world to see," he said. "It's sickening. It makes you wonder what would make individuals treat somebody like that."

In addition to the hate crime charges, all four suspects face counts of aggravated kidnapping, aggravated battery and aggravated unlawful restraint, and are due in court Friday.