Windsor police are releasing more information about an assault on a girl with special needs, all captured on video.
The cell phone recording shows a girl on a city street with her hands in her pockets. She's surrounded by several other teens who are yelling at her before eventually punching the victim. The video appears to have been recorded by a male in the group who encourages the other girls to punch the victim.
Windsor police have identified the suspects in the video. Windsor Police Constable Andrew Drouillard says they began investigating after receiving a call from the victim. Police were also contacted by the suspect who was receiving threats after the video went viral. Windsor Police Constable Andrew Drouillard told AM800's 'The Lynn Martin Show' they started investigating late yesterday.
"We also received a call later on from the suspect involved as well who was calling because she was receiving threats as a result of this video." Drouillard added, "As a police service and police officers, this is why we get into policing to protect vulnerable people like this, right. It's a difficult video to watch, obviously. We just want to remind people to let the police take care of this. We are investigating this. Our Youth Branch is following up on this and it will be dealt with," says Drouillard.
In the meantime, the Windsor woman who posted the video of the girl being bullied is overwhelmed by the response.
Amanda Jay told AM800's 'The 'Lynn Martin Show' that she is friends with the 19-year-old victim.
Jay shared the video in hopes of identifying the perpetrators and says she can't believe the response.
"It was very upsetting. Originally I shared the video to identify who the perpetrators were but at this point, it is a bit overwhelming. It has been shared 700,000 times at this point," says Jay.
She says threatening the suspects is not right either. She adds "I want to say for everyone who is listening, we don't condone that, threatening these girls is no better than what they did, they are young and it doesn't make you any better."
Police are asking people not to re-post the video because it re-victimizes the girl who was attacked.
Below is a screen grab of an online apology believed to be from one of the perpetrators in the incident. Minutes later, the social media account was deleted.
(AM800 file photo)
- with files from AM800's Teresinha Medeiros