BAY VILLAGE, Ohio – Ohio police said they have identified the people involved after the attack on a teen with autism surfaced.
A video of the prank shows the teen standing outside a garage door in his underwear when someone from the rooftop dumps a bucket of murky brown fluid over his head.
The 15-year-old boy’s mother told CBS 6 affiliateWJW-TV in Cleveland that the video was discovered on her son’s cell phone.
“He was embarrassed because he did not know what the contents were until afterwards, and then he didn’t want anybody to know,” the mother told the station. “They used his phone to tape it, and they put it up on Instagram.”
“We are being very thorough in gathering all the necessary facts before presenting to the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office,” Police Chief Mark Spaetzel said. “We are not sure when that will happen because we have additional interviews to conduct and further investigative avenues to pursue.”
Criminal charges against the juveniles involved could range from misdemeanor assault to disorderly conduct, according to a criminal defense attorney.
“As heinous as these acts were, it’s going to be difficult because under state law there’s really not a lot of offenses that fit,” the attorney said.
He added that it likely doesn’t qualify as a hate crime in the state of Ohio, which could bring harsher penalties.
Bay Village is a suburb of Cleveland, Carey’s hometown and the city where “The Drew Carey Show” was based.
“If the Bay Village PD wants to start a reward fund to find who did this, contact me. I’ll donate $10k,” Carey tweeted over the weekend.
Jenny McCarthy and Donnie Wahlberg joined Carey on Sunday in offering $10,000 each over Twitter to find those behind the prank on the student from Bay Village, Ohio.
The stunt appears to be a spoof of the ALS ice bucket challenge in which participants get a bucket of ice water dumped over their heads. The campaign raises awareness and donations for research on Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
