Students at a Manitoba secondary school are being urged to stop sharing a video that appears to show a badly beaten fellow student before she was found dead.
Serena “Serenity” McKay of Sagkeeng First Nation was last seen Saturday. The 19-year-old’s body was found Sunday in Fort Alexander, Man. Two teens girls, ages 16 and 17, have been charged with second-degree murder.
It is believed the two girls recorded the beating and later posted a photo of themselves smiling in bloody clothes.
In the video, which has spread through Facebook at the school the three attended, the victim’s face is so bloodied and swollen that she is unrecognizable.
Police say they have contacted Facebook and asked to have it removed.
Chief Derrick Henderson called the social media sharing “so cruel.”
“I wish we could take all the towers down where kids have access to social media because some of the things being posted … it’s just not right,” he said.
Sagkeeng Anicinabe High School principal Claude Guimond said students were asked to delete the video “out of respect for the victim and the family.”
Guimond said McKay had come to the school at the start of the school year from Powerview, Man., and was set to graduate this year.
Several counsellors have been made available for students and a healing circle was held Tuesday, Guimond said.
A vigil is planned for McKay on Thursday evening in Sagkeeng First Nation.
Performance crime?
The attack appears to be latest violent crime posted online. Earlier this month, a killer used Facebook to live-broadcast the murder of Cleveland senior Robert Godwin Sr.
On Monday, a Thai man killed his 11-month-old daughter before his own suicide, all of it streamed live on Facebook. That video was made inaccessible by Facebook on Tuesday.
University of Manitoba criminologist Frank Cormier says there is nothing new about criminals seeking attention. In fact, he said, some crimes are committed for the notoriety.
What is new, according to Cormier, is “a technology where attention can be gained immediately and on a global scale.”
With a report from CTV’s Jill Macyshon and CTV Winnipeg
