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Four Chicago thugs have been denied bail in this week’s live-streamed, black-on-white torture of a mentally-disabled man. Friday afternoon’s bail hearing was the first court appearance for the quartet on multiple counts of committing hate crimes along with kidnapping and battery charges. A few new details emerged from the appearance, including that one of the four thugs demanded $300 from the victim’s mother while he was being held, according to prosecutors. The teenaged victim suffers from schizophrenia and attention deficit disorder, prosecutors also revealed. His ordeal began with the defendants beating him in the stolen van they used to transport him, prosecutors said. At one point, they allegedly stuffed a sock into his mouth, taped his mouth shut and bound his hands with a belt, officials added. Details emerged as well Friday about the criminal history of the defendants.
Tanishia Covington, 24, has a 2007 juvenile arrest for felony attempted armed robbery. Jordan Hill, 18, has a 2015 juvenile arrest for armed robbery, possession of a stolen vehicle and residential burglary. Covington’s sister, Brittany, and Tesfaye Cooper, both 18, have minor, non-violent offenses on their raps. But Cooper has a history of online thuggery. Two months before the kidnapping, Cooper posted a violent YouTube video in which he points what looks like a BB rifle at the camera and drawls, “Boom! Put a bullet in ya a–!” Tesfaye Cooper, 18, published the YouTube clip on October 22 under the name PBG HotHead, a reference to the North Side, Chicago-based “Pooh Bear Gang.” -- “Yeah, Boom! Smoke yo a–” he says in the nearly incoherent clip. “Damn! Big a– bitch a– n—…Boom! Put a bullet in ya a–!”
Police say Cooper starred in his next video — the live-streamed, taped torture of the Illinois teen — earlier this week. “F–k Donald Trump, n—a, f–k white people!” one of the suspects can be heard telling the teen victim in the video, which was live streaming on Facebook for roughly 30 minutes. Another video shows the victim being forced to drink toilet water. An online GoFundMe effort titled “Let’s show the Chigago victim Love,” has raised more than $50,000.