Providence, RI - After a portion of a rape video was uploaded and circulated on Facebook, eight men now face felony charges for allegedly sexually assaulting an unconscious 16-year-old girl during a party in December of 2019.
Police Department of Providence shared during a Wednesday morning press conference that they are arresting seven suspects of the alleged rape case, as they identified the suspects coming from Providence and naming them, Jose Vargas, 19; Luis Cabrera, 19; Erving Keith Colon, 25; Luis Luna, 19, Malcolm Baptista, 19; and Carlos Chicon, 20.
Victim was unconcious during the attack
The seventh arrested suspect was a 20-year-old man from Massachusetts named Richard Chester. The eighth suspect on the case, 19-year-old Carlos Vasquez who is a Providence resident, remains at large and currently being sought by the local authorities.
According to Daily Mail, after allegedly being seen in the video like the one raping the unconscious teenager, Chester now has been charged with first-degree sexual assault on a mentally incapacitated individual and conspiracy to commit crime
Charges of assault with intent to commit first-degree sexual assault on a mentally incapacitated person, and conspiracy has also been charged after arraignment of the seven other suspects.
Hugh Clements Jr, Chief of the Providence Police Department shared that the case was described as horrifying and devastating. He also emphasized that it is disturbing. The said case was brought up on December 20, 2019, when the 16-year-old girl woke up at around 1 in the morning and suffered vaginal pain and had cuts on her thighs at a home in the 100 block of Glenham Street after partying.
Based on the court documents, the victim was alone with Chester who then ordered her to leave the area.
It was also stated in the document that by the time she retrieved her phone, she discovered that someone had used the communication device as a way of sending mocking messages to her ex-boyfriend wherein messages contained that she was sexually assaulted by numerous men while she was being unconscious.
The Police Chief also mentioned that the suspects did not only assaulted her criminally and viciously but totally violated her in so many inhumane ways.
Suspects took photographs of the teen
According to the records, in an interview with the case's investigators, the victim remembered a man that held her down on a bed poured Hennessy Brandy down her throat in a house party wherein she was brought by two colleagues of her, New York Daily News reported.
The victim also mentioned that she recalled waking up naked in a shower in the middle of 15 men who were laughing at that time. She also stated that they possibly photographed her.
The family, together with the victim proceeded to the police station to file a report later that day but the investigation on the case only kicked into high gear when a video recording that depicts a portion of the sexual assault was discovered on Facebook in June 2020.
Police Major David Lapatin stated that the footage was inhumane as the unconscious girl was being sexually assaulted by numerous men while others stood by and watched.
The mother of the victim was the one who recorded the footage and brought it to the authorities for investigation. The evidence was used to identify the men who perpetrated the assault in the footage and was also used to obtain warrants for their arrests which happened last week.
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