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Facebook Live Rape Victim's Sister Was Beaten Outside Home, Reports Say

By Kelly Bauer | May 5, 2017 10:41am | Updated on May 9, 2017 11:51am
 The mother of a 15-year-old girl who was sexually assaulted on Facebook Live said another daughter, 12, was attacked outside their home.
The mother of a 15-year-old girl who was sexually assaulted on Facebook Live said another daughter, 12, was attacked outside their home.
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CHICAGO — The mother of a girl who officials said was gang-raped on Facebook Live is trying to raise money to move her family out of the neighborhood.

The girl, 15, has been living with relatives since the attack in late March, the mother told WGN. Her family remains in North Lawndale, and they say they've been harassed and attacked while trying to get enough money to move away.

Earlier this week, the victim's 12-year-old sister was attacked by a group of girls near their home, their mother said.

"It's like it's something so serious like this you would think people would understand, but they're taking it as a joke," the mother told WGN after the attack on her younger daughter.

The family thinks the beating of the younger girl was a form of retaliation, WGN said. The mother said she was told one of the girl's attackers asked, "Why you send my brother to jail?" before beating the 12-year-old.

"We tried to make everything seem normal, but it's hard," the mother told WGN. "Now with this, my kids are scared."

A GoFundMe campaign to help the family get a new start has raised more than $11,400 since starting last month. It has a goal of getting $36,000.

The livestreamed attack on the 15-year-old happened in March after the girl went missing, police said. Video shared on Facebook Live showed several people sexually assaulting the girl, who was later found in the street, hospitalized and reunited with her mother, officials said.

Prosecutors said an acquaintance of the girl lured her into a basement, where she was raped and forced to perform oral sex under the threat of being attacked by a pit bull, according to the Sun-Times. Two boys, 14 and 15, have been charged in the assault.

The assault is one of several high-profile crimes recently live-streamed on Facebook in Chicago. In February, a pregnant woman was recording herself on Facebook Live when a gunman opened fire, wounding her and killing a 2-year-old and a man.

In January, four people were charged with hate crimes in the kidnapping and torturing of a mentally disabled suburban man on Facebook Live.

In 2016, a man was live streaming when he was shot and fatally wounded in North Lawndale. Also last year, a man taking a selfie video was shot on Facebook. He survived that incident, but was shot to death months later.

Facebook recently announced it will hire 3,000 people to review Facebook Live videos.