SHENANDOAH - Borough police have identified the victim and two suspects in a bullying incident last week that was captured on video and posted on Facebook.
Shenandoah police Chief George Carado said Monday that he learned of the incident Saturday, after the video was posted on the popular social network website.
"I was made aware of the video on Facebook on Saturday on my way home from a seminar in Harrisburg," Carado said. "(Patrolman Kirk) Kirkland had received a call from Minersville police about 2:45 p.m. telling him that it looked like one of the persons in the video looks like a kid from Minersville."
Carado said Patrolman Robert Senape did the follow-up and learned the names.
Minersville police Chief Michael Combs said Monday that he got a call Saturday from one of his part-time officers who heard about the incident from Pine Grove police.
"I look on Facebook and recognize the main actor is one of ours, but I didn't recognize the place," Combs said. "We all agreed we know who the actor is and we're all convinced this is not in the borough (of Minersville). There's nothing there that looks even remotely like anything here."
Combs said that since they recognized the one suspect as a 14-year-old from Minersville who is on juvenile probation, they contacted the Schuylkill County Juvenile Justice Department and Shenandoah police.
"On Saturday evening, we had the victim in the police station, along with the two kids who are doing this," Carado said. "Both of those kids admitted their part and the victim said what happened and identified them as the ones striking him."
Carado said police are aware of nine people who are involved. The victim is from Shenandoah while the two suspects are from Shenandoah and Minersville, and six "witnesses" are from Shenandoah. All are ages 12 to 14, he said. Police spoke to some of the witnesses and hope to get everyone interviewed as soon as possible, including the person who recorded the incident.
"We're going to list the six as 'witnesses' for juvenile court," Carado said.
Carado said the bullying attack occurred sometime after 7 p.m. Thursday near Holy Ghost Polish National Catholic Church at Lloyd and Chestnut streets, Shenandoah.
"It started at West Mount Vernon Street, then they ran to the back of the church, which is where (the victim) gets hit," Carado said. "I don't know how the video got uploaded and who posted it to Facebook. The victim or family never came forward because he didn't tell his mother. When we contacted them, he and his mother came up. None of the parents knew about this."
Minersville police Patrolman Jeffrey Bowers said that the girl who originally recorded the video sent it to the main suspect and it was eventually shared with more people online, including Minersville police.
No charges have yet been filed.
"What we're going to do is take our whole report when it's done and give it to the (county) ADA Keith Office in juvenile justice," Carado said. "Ultimately, we'll have to charge them, but we'll forward everything to him and see what kind of charges they want."
Carado said that even if the victim's parents don't file a complaint, police will file charges anyway based on the video.
Combs said that "what's so disheartening in this whole thing is that no one called the police. They put this stuff on Facebook and there were all kinds of criticism of the Minersville police that we aren't doing anything, but nobody called us, like we're supposed to be monitoring Facebook all the time," Combs said. "Facebook is not a way to report a crime."