A budding interracial relationship set the stage for one of the most harrowing hate crimes among Chicago teens in recent memory.
What’s bizarre is that it took more than a month for the details of the vicious, racially charged attack to emerge.
On Dec. 23, 2011, three white Brother Rice High School students, ages 16 to 18, invited a black schoolmate over to one of the teens’ homes. The black teen was engaged in a developing relationship with the cousin of one of the white teens. When the black teen arrived, he was verbally assaulted and threatened by knifepoint.
The black teen told reporters that one of his attackers said: “Stop talking to my cousin. You are annoying her. If you don’t stop, I’m going to kill you.”
Worse, the teens held him at knife point and slipped a noose around his neck, Chicago police reported.
The attackers refused to let their victim leave, but he escaped and told his family of the attack. The family reported the crime to school officials at the all-boys Catholic school.
The teens were arrested on January 10th; the details of the crime have now been made public.
Mark Herrmann, 18, was charged as an adult with the hate crime, battery and unlawful restraint. The 16 and 17-year-old teens were charged as juveniles and their names were not released.
