Atlanta police arrested three people last week after a 12-year-old boy had the word "gay" cut into his hair and was roughed up in a troubling attack posted on social media, authorities said Monday.
Lorkeyla Jamia Spencer, 19, and Brittney Monique Mills, 35, remained in Fulton County Jail on Monday morning and are charged with cruelty to children, arrest records and a sheriff's spokeswoman said.
Jordan Jarrode Richards-Nwankwo, 18, was charged with cruelty to children and battery before he posted a $50,000 bond and was released on Sunday, the sheriff's rep added.
The Instagram of Gaye magazine, an online publication that focuses on LGBTQ issues within the Black community, posted the disturbing footage last month, showing a boy being berated by what appeared to be two females behind the camera and one man in front.
"You still doing gay s---," the man tells the boy.
That man then turns the boy's head to the camera, showing the word "gay" shaved into his scalp.
"You think this on the side of your head for no reason, is that what you think?" the man said before slapping the boy hard in the side of his head. "So why you just say that gay a-- s---?""
The man went on to hit and shove the boy in the video.
"This was a difficult video to watch when you see someone ... a young person being abused like this," Atlanta Police Sgt. John Chafee told reporters. "It was tough to watch."
Police didn't specify how the suspects were related to the child.
"Investigators were made aware of video posted on social media that depicted what appeared to be a young male who was being abused and it appeared he was being abused because of his sexual orientation," Chafee said. "We're pleased with the feedback that we got from the community assisting with this."
Special Victims Unit investigators got tips from the public and "were able to find the incident location and identify the juvenile and he was placed in the care of the Georgia Division of Family & Children Services (DFCS)," according to a police statement.
Mills' lawyer could not be reached for comment on Monday, while jai and arrest records for Spencer and Richards-Nwankwo did not show they had hired or been appointed attorneys yet.
