11 Horrendous Crimes Live Streamed on Facebook

No one expected Facebook users to use the live video streaming feature to broadcast brutal attacks and killings, but that’s exactly what has happened in the last few years.

From gang-related shootings to sexual assault, many used the platform to gain a sense of instant notoriety and show off their crimes to an audience. Other times, the attacks were coincidentally caught on social media. See some of the most heinous crimes that have been live streamed on social media.

Serena McKay beaten to death

A 2017 video streamed on Facebook Live showed 19-year-old Serena McKay being brutally beaten to death by two other teenagers. The video remained on the social networking site for four hours before it was removed.

In the video, McKay was seen sobbing and saying, “I’m so sorry.”

The teens’ principal believes the murder was drug-related. Two suspects face murder charges.

Group tortures developmentally-disabled man

An 18-year-old Chicago man with “mental health challenges” was tortured with a knife and verbally abused by four suspects while the attack was broadcasted on Facebook Live.

The suspects bound the man’s hands and eventually forced him to drink from a toilet as people off camera were heard making racially and politically charged remarks.

At one point, the video live stream had more than 16,000 viewers, many of which interacted with the attackers.

The young man later escaped and the four were arrested by police.

Steve Stephens, the Facebook murderer

After an argument with his girlfriend, Cleveland man Steve Stephens published to Facebook a video of him approaching and fatally shooting an innocent elderly man while walking along 93rd Street in the large Ohio city. While streaming the encounter live, Stephens asked the man to say his girlfriend’s name.

“She’s the reason why this is about to happen to you,” he said in the video before fatally shooting the victim. In a subsequent live video, Stephens explained how he was going on a “massacre” and claimed to have killed 13 others. After a three-day manhunt, Stephens shot himself in Erie, Pennsylvania before police could get to him.

Group of boys sexually assault teen

In March 2017, several teenage boys in Chicago live-streamed the sexual assault of a 15-year-old girl using Facebook, according to Forbes. Police say that at one point, more than 40 people were watching the attack — but no one called 911 or contacted authorities.

The mother of the victim approached police after an unrelated news conference and showed them images of her daughter being assaulted by five or six young men. The Chicago Tribune has reported that two boys were arrested in connection with the assault.

Antonio Perkins shot and killed in drive-by shooting

Antonio Perkins, 28, was live streaming himself on Facebook Live when he was shot by a barrage of bullets. He was pronounced dead about 15 minutes later with bullet wounds to the neck and head. Police suspect gang-related violence, although Antonio’s family denied that he was in a gang.

“A lot of people loved my son,” his father Daniel Cole said. “He was a good person.”

Philando Castile shot by police, filmed and live-streamed by girlfriend

Philando Castile was shot and killed by police during a routine traffic stop while his children sat in the back seat. Officer Jeronimo Yanez fired when Castile mentioned that he had a gun on him. After being shot in the arm, his girlfriend, Lavish Reynolds, live streamed the incident.

Although Facebook took down the video several hours later, it amounted 2.1 million views. Yanez was later acquitted of all three felonies he was charged with.

Tennessee police shooting

In March 2017, Rodney James Hess of New Orleans was live-streaming a standoff with police when hew as shot and killed on a highway in rural Tennessee. Hess was reportedly parked perpendicular in traffic, asking to speak to a ranking officer or a “higher command.”

Police say Hess had attempted to strike officers with his car and refused to follow officer’s commands.

Chicago manhunt

Chicago police sought a suspect in March 2016 after he recorded a live stream video while firing multiple gunshots at a local Chicago man. The footage went viral and police used it to investigate the incident.

It happened on a weekend where Chicago experienced an extremely high shootings rate; the incident was believed to be gang-related.

Triple shooting in Norfolk, Virginia

In July 2016, Tommy Williams and his two friends were sitting in a car in Norfolk, Virginia, smoking marijuana and listening to music. Williams was live streaming when a spray of bullets crashed through his windshield.

“Call an ambulance, please,” one passenger can be heard saying.

Williams and his friends were transported to a local hospital, but the video continued to stream from the floor of his car until police found his phone. The three men survived, but prosecutors dropped all charges in the shooting in December 2017, less than a month before Tony Angelo Roundtree’s trial was slated to start.

Memphis bar shooting

A woman was using Facebook Live when gunshots rang out at a Mexican bar and grill in Memphis, Tennessee in December 2016. One man, 43-year-old Alvin Hart, was killed in the incident, and another was wounded.

Police say Hart was killed when the bar’s bouncer returned fire after gunshots were aimed at the building. The bouncer was charged with reckless homicide, aggravated assault and acting as security guard without registration.

2-year-old killed in Chicago

On Valentine’s Day in 2017, a woman was using Facebook Live when a gunman opened fire on a car in Chicago. A 2-year-old boy, identified as Lavontay White, Jr. and a 26-year-old man were killed during the shooting.

The woman, who was pregnant at the time, was wounded. Both she and her baby survived.