'Empire' actor Jussie Smollett speaks out for the first time since the alleged attack
'Empire' actor Jussie Smollett is speaking out for the first time to let fans know he is 'OK' after he was allegedly attacked Tuesday by two men in what police are investigating as a possible hate crime. Smollett also said he is working cooperating with police, adding that he has been '100% factual and consistent on every level.'
As police in Chicago continue their investigation of last week’s alleged attack on “Empire” star Jussie Smollett, a Chicago Police Department spokesperson tells Fox News they are withholding some information in order to verify reports from people coming forward.
As previously reported, the 36-year-old Smollett, who is black and openly gay, told officers that he was accosted while walking to his apartment by two men who called him an "Empire f----t [n-word]." Smollett then said the men beat him and poured an "unknown chemical substance" on him, staining his clothes. The report said that when responding officers arrived, Smollett had a white rope draped around his neck.
The CPD official told Fox News that they are withholding certain information about the attack because more people are coming forward that “can be helpful” to the investigation. The CPD also tells Fox News that they are withholding certain information because they want to have “all their ducks in a row” if they open this case up to “interrogations.”
Regarding the account from a Smollett neighbor who claimed to see a “redneck” with a rope, the CPD official tells Fox News they could not find any surveillance video showing the “redneck” described, and that the neighbor's description of the “redneck” did not fit Smollett’s description of the reported suspects.
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Police said Monday that they had located additional surveillance cameras in the area where Smollett says he was attacked. Chicago Police Department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the footage from those cameras was being "downloaded and reviewed."
He added that two individuals seen in the area around the time Smollett said he was attacked -- and considered "people of interest" -- had not yet been identified "as homeless or otherwise."
Guglielmi previously said investigators would go painstakingly through footage to reconstruct what Smollett said happened to him early on the morning of Jan. 29.
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