MINNEAPOLIS - Two men are charged after an "appalling" video was posted to Facebook, depicting an "elderly" woman being assaulted, groped and robbed at a Minneapolis bus station, police say.
According to the criminal complaint, Wesley Norman Martin, 21, and Deondre R. Jackson, 20, approached the victim on Feb. 12, while she was sitting on a bench in the Chicago-Lake Transit Shelter.
The complaint states surveillance video shows the suspects yelling at the victim and shoving her down after she repeatedly tries to leave. Authorities say Martin can be seen taking a liquor bottle from inside the victim's jacket then begins rubbing her stomach, bottom and thighs.
The victim can be seen trying to escape multiple times but Martin and Jackson prevent her from leaving, holding her in place, according to the charges.
Jackson can be seen hovering over the woman filming with his cell phone as Martin pulls her backwards into the shelter and throws her to the ground.
Charges say Martin then held the victim on the ground and groped her while Jackson moves closer to record a close-up of her face.
An unidentified female accomplice then rips the jacket off the victim, while she's in the fetal position on the floor. At this point, Jackson continues to record the incident on his phone as Martin and the female accomplice accost the woman, the complaint states.
Jackson can be heard on the video yelling racial epithets about the woman, saying "that lady like a hundred years old!"
The victim could be heard saying "help me" in the video, but many people in the shelter are seen doing nothing.
At one point, an older man in the shelter pushes Martin away from the victim and a fight ensues. Martin kicks and punches the older man in the face and he can be seen "staggering from the blow."
The female accomplice holds the elderly woman on the ground and can be seen ripping her shirt from her body, eventually tearing it off completely. The woman attempts to get her shirt back but the female accomplice rips it away and leaves the transit center with it.
Jackson and Martin are charged with first-degree aggravated robbery. Both were already in custody on probation violations. Martin was convicted of third-degree assault on Feb. 7 and Jackson has previous convictions of aggravated robbery and terroristic threats from Jan. 11, 2016.
