Eleven Illinois youngsters have been hit with felony expenses in reference to the alleged luring and beating of two males utilizing courting apps this summer season, in response to police.
Some of the teenagers, all males aged 17 and one aged 16, allegedly took inspiration for the crimes from a viral social media development, the Mount Prospect Police Department stated in information launch revealed Thursday. Police didn’t elaborate what the social media development entailed.
On July 8 at round 9:45 p.m., a 41-year-old man reported to police that he’d been crushed by “a gaggle of youngsters” in a car parking zone at 606 West Northwest Highway in Mount Prospect, Illinois.
“The sufferer associated that he had utilized a web-based courting app to rearrange to satisfy an individual at that location,” police stated within the information launch. “After arriving, the sufferer associated that he was approached by a gaggle of teenage males, who confronted him verbally and battered him. Teenagers within the group additionally broken the sufferer’s automobile.”
The 41-year-old man was adopted by the youngsters when he tried to flee in his automotive, however was ultimately in a position to get away from them, police stated.
About 10 minutes in a while the identical evening, police responded to the 400 block of See Gwun Avenue for a report of a battery. A 23-year-old man informed police he organized to satisfy somebody via a courting app on the 900 block of West Lincoln Street — a couple of mile away from the situation of the primary incident — and was as an alternative approached by teen males who beat him, with one slashing tires on his automotive, in response to police.
Police didn’t make clear if it was one in all extra courting apps used to lure the lads, or determine the courting apps.
The 23-year-old sufferer was in a position to get in his automotive and drive away however needed to cease after realizing a few of his tires have been slashed. He requested the residents of a close-by house to name 911, police stated.
“The Mount Prospect Police Detectives have been ready find video surveillance footage that captured the incident at 606 West Northwest Highway and have been in a position to determine among the offenders within the video,” police stated. “An intensive investigation was performed the place eleven whole juveniles have been recognized as participating in a single or each incidents.”
The eleven youngsters have been charged with one or two counts every of aggravated battery, prison injury to property and mob motion. Detectives additionally discovered that one of many teenagers used “a racial and one other derogatory time period” throughout one of many incidents, leading to two hate crime expenses for that teen, in response to police.
Police didn’t point out which slurs {the teenager} allegedly used.
The Mount Prospect Police Department stated the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office accepted the fees for the teenagers, who all turned themselves in from Nov. 11 to twenty and have been taken to Chicago’s Cook County Juvenile Detention Center.
The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
The police division is advising mother and father to talk to their youngsters about partaking in social media traits.
“We are asking mother and father to take these incidents as a chance to speak with their teenage youngsters concerning the seriousness of actively collaborating in these kind of traits they see on social media,” Police Chief Michael Eterno stated.