WARNING: This story contains content that some readers may find disturbing. Please read at your own discretion.
Police say they have arrested a 20-year-old man in connection with video of a brutal beating at a nursing home in the Detroit area, which shows a young man repeatedly punching an older man laying in a hospital bed.
The video shows a young man leaning over the bed and delivering dozens of punches to the victim, who has since been identified as a 75-year-old man. The suspect appears to have shot the video himself, as he looks at the camera during the beating and later picks it up to point it at the victim.
The older man can be seen covering his head. He tries to get up while the suspect continues to punch him in the side of the face.
The suspect eventually rolls the victim off the bed and focuses the camera on the victim’s face, which appears to be bleeding around the eye. The suspect can be heard cursing at the victim, and he briefly turns the camera on the older man while voicing his complaints.
The video sparked outrage after it circulated online Thursday, and even caught the attention of U.S. President Donald Trump on Twitter.
“Is this even possible to believe?” Trump tweeted. “Can this be for real? Where is this nursing home, how is the victim doing?”
The incident happened at the Westwood Rehabilitation Nursing Center on May 15, a lawyer for the facility told local station WDIV. The victim was staying at the facility temporarily for rehabilitation and recovery. The suspect is also a patient, police said.
“The individuals involved were residents,” the nursing home said in its statement, which was also provided to WXYZ. “One thing we want to make clear, on the record, is that this incident did not involve a nurse or any other employee of the nursing home.”
Officials say the man’s injuries do not appear to be life threatening. His name has not been released.
“What our investigation has revealed so far was the nursing home was unaware of an assault until they saw the video,” Detroit police Chief James Craig said at a news conference Thursday.
A second video that appears to show the suspect beating a woman has also circulated online, where a growing number of Trump supporters have attempted to exact their own justice by sharing what they say is the suspect’s name and home address. Many have threatened to personally do harm to the suspect.
Michigan’s Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) said on Friday that it’s “deeply disturbed” by the video. It added that the suspect is not an MDHHS employee, and that the incident did not happen at a department facility.
The MDHHS says it helped identify the perpetrator and passed on information “which led to the arrest.”
Police announced that an arrest had been made on Thursday morning, but did not release the name of the suspect.
The investigation is ongoing and no charges had been announced as of noon Friday.
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