By John Dempsey, WLS-AM News
(CHICAGO) Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson was on WLS Friday morning, talking about the case of the four people accused in the torture of a mentally disabled man that was streamed on Facebook Live.
Johnson told “The Big John and Ray Show” on WLS that the incident was unlike any he has ever seen. “I’ve been a cop for 28 years and I’ve seen some horrific stuff. But it just still amazes me what goes through somebody’s mind to treat another human being like that. It’s just sickening. And you know they deserve to get whatever it is they get and hopefully they’ll get the full extent of the sentencing guidelines that we can give to em.”
Listen to Johnson speak with Big John and Ray on WLS-AM 890 here.
Eighteen-year-olds Brittany Covington, Tesfaye Cooper and Jordan Hill, and 24-year-old Tanishia Covington each face hate crime, kidnapping and battery charges in connection with the attack. All four suspects are black and the victim is white.
Johnson says the hate crime charges resulted from both the suspects’ use of racial slurs and their references to the victim’s disability. Investigators say it appears Hill and the victim knew each other, and that the victim’s parents dropped him off at a Streamwood McDonald’s so he could spend the night at Hill’s home on New Year’s Eve. The parents reported their 18-year-old son missing on Monday.
Police say the torture occurred on Tuesday in an apartment the Covington sisters share in the 3300 block of West Lexington on the West Side.
Eddie Johnson told WLS he still can’t believe it happened. “You know here’s a kid….they picked on a weak kid that can’t protect himself and one of them is supposed to be his friend. Imagine your friend doing something like that to you. At some point we do shake our heads and say ‘good grief, you know, what’s gonna happen next? As silly as this is and as horrific as it is, these guys and gals wanted to be famous. Well, we’re gonna make em famous but not in the way that they thought.”
@ 2017 WLS-AM 890
