White House: Chicago Beating Video 'Chilling'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The White House on Wednesday weighed in for the first time on the beating death of a Chicago honors student, calling cell phone footage that showed teens battering the victim with railroad ties "chilling" and "shocking."
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said President Obama had discussed the issue with advisers as recently as Wednesday morning and that the administration would have some announcements, though he did not give specifics.
Gibbs was responding to a question about how Chicago violence might factor into Obama's effort to promote the city as the host of the 2016 Summer Olympics during a selection committee meeting Friday in Denmark.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"The video ... is among the most shocking that you can ever see -- the killing of an honor student by others who's beaten to death is chilling, chilling video," Gibbs said.
The footage showed teens kicking and hitting 16-year-old Derrion Albert, a sophomore honors student, in a city where violent teen deaths are a chronic problem.
Prosecutors have since charged four teenagers in the killing.