Six teenage girls in Chester, Penn., have been charged with aggravated assault and other related charges after they video-recorded themselves beating a 48-year-old woman with special needs at her home, the Daily Times reports.
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Four of the girls, including two sisters ages 15 and 16, are in police custody as of Thursday night. They are still looking for the other two. All six will be charged as adults.
As news of the brutal beating spread in their community, one of the girls turned herself in to police, accompanied by her mother. The parents of the other girls have also been in contact with the police.
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“The parents are upset,” one officer told the Daily Times. “The girls are defiant. It’s like they didn’t do anything wrong.”
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Local police say that such attacks common often but go unreported. This attack was uploaded to Facebook soon after it happened and a local parent reported it to police. Chester Police Commissioner Joseph Bail said at a press conference that the attack would have gone unnoticed had it not been recorded.
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The attack, according to the time stamp on the video, shows that it took place on Sept. 25 between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. One of the girls begins recording themselves approaching the woman who seems not to notice their advance. Audio of the girls plotting their attack can clearly be heard.
Moments later, they are seen jumping the woman at her stoop outside of the home. The attack then moves from the street and into the home where the girls are seen in the video ransacking the property. The woman never called police.
The woman’s neighbors told ABC-affiliate WVPI-TV in Philadelphia that they are outraged by the attacks. “Her face is all beat up, swelling. She says doesn’t want to stay here no more,” neighbor Ken Worly said.
Another neighbor expressed what she would do if one of her own children would have committed such a horrible offense.
“That was wrong cause if it was my daughters, I would have brought them [to police] so you could have locked them up,” neighbor Tanien Washington said.
Delaware County District Attorney Jack Whelan confirmed to the Daily Times that all six girls will be charged as adults. Under Pennsylvania law, a suspect must be 15 or older to be charged as an adult.”Their behavior is animalistic to this poor woman,” Whelan said.
But the number one question on everyone’s mind is this: why did they do it? So far, no one is really sure.
The Police Chief says the attack is an “unfortunate sign of our times you know. Kids do things and have no concept of consequences. It’s a joke. They laugh in the video.”
