11 teens face felony charges for allegedly using dating apps to lure, beat men as part of viral social media trend

Authorities in Illinois said 11 teens engaged in a viral social media trend of using dating apps to lure and beat men. The teenagers are facing felony charges for their alleged assaults.

The Mount Prospect Police Department said in a statement that a group of 11 teens attacked two men over the summer.

'We are asking parents to take these incidents as an opportunity to talk with their teenage children about the seriousness of actively participating in these types of trends they see on social media.'

A 41-year-old man told police a group of teens battered him around 9:45 p.m. July 8 in the parking lot of a business in Mount Prospect, roughly 20 miles northwest of Chicago.

"The victim related that he had utilized an online dating app to arrange to meet a person at that location," the Mount Prospect Police Department stated. "After arriving, the victim related that he was approached by a group of teenage males who confronted him verbally and battered him. Teenagers in the group also damaged the victim’s vehicle. The victim related he fled in the vehicle and was eventually able to get away from the group of teenagers, who followed him in their vehicles."

Within just 10 minutes of the first reported attack, a 23-year-old man contacted police about an assault that purportedly occurred about a mile away from the first alleged attack.

The second alleged victim said he was expecting to meet a person at the location where a group of teenagers reportedly battered him. He also claimed the teens damaged his vehicle, including slashing the tires of his car.

The alleged victim went to a nearby home, after which the Mount Prospect Fire Department transported him to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Police did not reveal which dating app the suspects used to allegedly lure the men.

Detectives with the Mount Prospect Police Department used surveillance video from the areas of the alleged attacks to identify possible suspects. Following an investigation, police determined that 11 juveniles participated in one or both of the alleged attacks.

Overall, 53 felony charges were brought against the juvenile suspects — including aggravated battery with great bodily harm, criminal damage to property, and mob action.

NBC News reported that one of the teen suspects was hit with two felony counts of hate crime charges for purportedly using "a racial and another derogatory term" during one of the alleged attacks, police said.

Police did not reveal the racial slur that the suspect allegedly shouted.

The Cook County State's Attorney’s Office approved all of the charges against the juvenile suspects.

None of the suspects' identities were revealed because all of them were minors. All of the suspects were males, 10 of whom were 17 years old; one was 16.

Police said all of the suspects turned themselves in last month and were transported to Chicago's Cook County Juvenile Detention Center.

The suspects allegedly informed investigators that they got the idea for the alleged attacks from a viral social media trend they saw online.

“We are asking parents to take these incidents as an opportunity to talk with their teenage children about the seriousness of actively participating in these types of trends they see on social media,” said Mount Prospect Police Chief Mike Eterno.

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