Atlanta police arrest 3 suspected of homophobic abuse of child in viral video
Authorities in Atlanta credit the public for reporting the incident, leading to arrests
On Saturday, three people were arrested in connection with a viral video that captured a child being hit and verbally taunted over his sexuality, according to WSB-TV. The video was posted online a month ago.
The Atlanta Police Department has now arrested three suspects in relation to the video: Brittney Monique Mills, 35, Lorkeyla Jamia Spencer, 19, and Jordan Jarrode Richards-Nwankwo, 18. All three have been charged with cruelty to a child and are being detained in Fulton County Jail.
Richards-Nwankwo has received an additional charge of family violence battery. The connection between the child and the suspect has not been disclosed.
According to Crime Online, last month an Instagram Live post was circulated of a 12-year-old boy being ridiculed by older people for being gay. Video shows that the word “gay” was shaved into the side of his head. It is reported that he was also smacked on his head during the video.
An older man was heard in the video saying, “You still doing gay s—. You think I cut this in your head for no reason?”
WAGA-TV reports that police were notified of the video on June 17 by people who saw the viral post. The child and parties involved were located by investigators within 24 hours and the child, who has yet to be identified, was placed into protective custody with the Georgia Division of Family & Children Services.
WSB-TV reports that the local Special Victims Unit also got involved in the effort to locate and detain the suspects.
Once the three arrests where made, Atlanta Police Sgt. John Chafee gave credit to the people who brought the video to the department’s attention. “We’re very pleased with these arrests but we are pleased with feedback that we got from members of the community assisting in this and how quickly they were able to jump on it,” Chafee said to WAGA-TV.
Chafee went on to say how disturbing it was to review the video as the investigation was launched.
“This was a difficult video to watch. When you see someone, you know, I have a child, and when you see a young person being abused like this, I mean this is just so unnecessary,” he said. “It was difficult to watch. And I think with a lot of the investigators it was the same way.”
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