Video footage of people struggling with homelessness being assaulted by teenage girls in New England, Maine, has led to the young womens’ arrest.
Police charged two teen girls, ages 14 and 16, with aggravated assault and charged a 15-year-old boy who recorded the cruel act with criminal conspiracy.
The Auburn Police Department recovered the Facebook video, which showed two girls excessively kicking, punching and verbally abusing a woman before going after a man sitting on the street. The man can be heard begging the girls to stop lashing out at women when the attack escalates.
The lashings eventually ended when attack victim Tiffany Nadeau warned the girls to stop before they eventually killed the man.
“I said, ‘You girls are going to end up going to jail for murder if you don’t stop right now,'” Nadeau said told CBS13. “When I said that, it did work, and they ran.”
The Auburn Police Department shared in a Facebook statement that they identified the two victims earlier on Saturday during their investigation but could not confirm further answers on the incident. Authorities say the parents of two of the teens responsible called and reported the attack.
“Officers examined the video and determined the victims were the same two people they had checked on earlier in the day,” the statement read. “Two of the calls reporting the incident to police came from the mothers of the two teens responsible for the attack. Another call was from a concerned parent whose child had seen the video online.”
Police shared that the younger teens, ages 14 and 15, have been released on bail, while the 16-year-old is held at Long Creek Youth Development Center in South Portland due to “previous criminal activity.”
According to the Independent, in a now-deleted Facebook comment, first reported by Maine Journal News, one of the teen’s alleged older sisters expressed her sorrow and second-hand embarrassment.
“Our own mother is the one who called the police. I received the video as one of the first to see it. I immediately sent it to my mother and family member,” she wrote. “We were raised better than this, and we have no idea where this behavior comes from. I blame it on the crowd she’s hanging out with… me and my entire family think this is so wrong,”
“We are trying to get these poor people justice. They didn’t deserve it. And absolutely broke my heart to see this,” she continued. “Doing this hasn’t been easy. I am very embarrassed; I am very worn out. My face hurts from crying for these people. I am absolutely furious… and cannot be any more angry with her and her decisions.”
