Culprit In 2017 Anti-White Torture Hate Crime Back In Prison After Another Attack

SearchCloseDownload the Daily Wire appDownload theDaily Wire AppLOG IN Listen Listen •5 min1xYour browser does not support the audio element.Tesfaye Cooper and Jordan Hill (center and right) with their victim (Illinois Department of Corrections) The man convicted of torturing a mentally disabled white man and live-streaming his racially motivated attack is back in prison, having brutally attacked another innocent white man just months after his release.

Tesfaye Cooper in January 2017 lured a mentally disabled 18-year-old into a stolen van along with Jordan Hill and sisters Brittany and Tanishia Covington. The four assailants, all of whom were black, held their victim for days, keeping him gagged and bound in an apartment while they sliced off part of his scalp with a knife while screaming “f**k white people.” They demanded that he say “I love black people” and “f**k Donald Trump,” and made him drink out of a toilet. They filmed and broadcast the torture on Facebook.

All four were convicted of hate crimes, though all received plea deals and short (or no) prison terms from an Illinois prosecutor and judge. Cooper was the last to plead guilty, having refused to do so until prosecutors agreed to drop the vast majority of the charges. He only mumbled his apology to the victim in court, and received a sentence of seven years in July 2018. He was released in November 2025.

Cooper made it about five months before committing a similar attack. In April, he and an accomplice — who had warrants for failing to appear in court for four felony cases — were arrested for chasing down a white bicyclist who waved at them. The pair cornered the cyclist in a subway station, beat him, spit in his face, and stole his bike, while a transit guard watched. Cooper returned to Stateville Correctional Center on Thursday, The Daily Wire has learned.

The only local news outlet that appeared to cover Cooper’s re-offense was CWB Chicago, a small website created by five Chicagoans “who had grown disheartened with inaccurate information that was being provided” by the city’s public safety authorities.

Jordan Hill, the second culprit, was sentenced in July 2018 to eight years in prison for kidnapping and hate crime charges, with prosecutors also dropping charges after he rejected earlier plea deals. He told the judge, “I’m proud to be black.” He was released on parole in October 2023, a little more than five years later.

By December 2024, he was back in prison for a parole violation, the exact nature of which is unclear. His re-offense received no media coverage, and the Illinois Department of Corrections ignored The Daily Wire’s requests for information at the time. His new release date is April 2027.

All of the offenders were 18 at the time of the torture except for Tanishia Covington, who was 24. Covington gave only a half-hearted apology in court, saying, “I’m sorry to everyone for my participation, being childish.” The judge said, “We have one of the victims and his family here. ‘Everyone’ is nebulous.” She then told the victim she was sorry “if I added any problems for you.”

The victim accepted her apology, saying, “It’s okay. It’s fine.” The victim’s family even made a request that was called “unprecedented”: they asked for his assailants to receive extra help and social services.

Cook County Judge William Hooks sentenced Tanishia Covington to three years in prison. She was released on parole by June 2018. Her sister, Brittany, received only probation, which she later violated. She received no additional punishment.

All four culprits had prior run-ins with the law before the hate crime, such as arrests for armed robbery, but none had faced significant consequences.

National media largely tried to trick Americans into thinking the “2017 Chicago torture incident” was an anti-black hate crime committed by Trump supporters. CBS Radio News reported at the time that video showed the victim being “choked and repeatedly called the n-word” while “His alleged captors repeatedly reference Donald Trump.” The outlet framed the incident as a “racial” attack, but hid the race of the perpetrators.

Hill had been arrested for armed robbery, residential burglary and vehicle theft as a juvenile. Tanishia Covington was previously arrested for attempted armed robbery and aggravated assault, but prosecutors dropped charges.