A 15-year-old missing girl in Chicago was sexually assaulted on Facebook Live, police said Tuesday.
The girl, identified by a police spokesman on Twitter as Deahvion Austin, was found hours after Chicago police spokesman Anthony Gugliemi said investigators were “working around the clock” to find the girl after relatives said the missing teen had been assaulted by several boys on the social media platform.
The girl’s mother told police that Austin’s uncle discovered the disturbing video and Elkins grabbed four screengrabs of the graphic content to show to police, WGN reports.
“I just want her home,” the girl’s mother, Stacey Elkins, told the news station. “I just want to make sure she’s ok cause I know she’s probably scared and embarrassed. I just want her back home.”
Detectives are now working to build a timeline and corroborate information provided by the girl and her relatives. She is now being treated at a hospital for the alleged sexual assault, Guglielmi told The Post in an email.
“All are suspected to be juveniles so we will need to work with parents, etc.,” Guglielmi wrote. “This could be a lengthy process.”
Guglielmi said the girl’s mother encountered Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson as he was leaving a police station after an unrelated press conference.
“[Johnson] was visibly upset when he heard about the case and saw the pictures of the girl,” Guglielmi’s email continued. “He was also very dismayed when he learned that there were people watching the incident live and no one called police. The video shows her being sexually assault by at least 5 or 6 men.”
Johnson immediately escorted the girl’s mother into the police station and notified the department’s chief of detectives. At least 40 people were watching the livestream at one point, Guglielmi said, adding that investigators contacted Facebook to remove the video.
“What’s even more disturbing, more than the fact that they did this, there were so many people that saw this and they didn’t pick up the phone and dial 911,” Johnson told WGN. “That’s just not right and (we’re) working on it and try to bring it to a successful resolution.”
Austin, a freshman at Lane Technical College High School, left home after going to the store on Sunday, WGN reported.
The incident is the latest in a string of alleged crimes in Chicago caught on Facebook Live. In January, four people were arrested after the brutal torture of a special-needs man was livestreamed on Facebook as he was bound and gagged. In June 2016, a purported gang member in Chicago was filming himself when a rival gangster fatally shot him.