Chicago police may have located video footage that show two “people of interest” in the alleged racially-motivated attack on “Empire” star Jussie Smollett.
“Police detectives have located surveillance cameras that show potential people of interest in the alleged assault and battery that was reported in the 300 block of E. North Water Street,” Chicago Police told Page Six Wednesday evening.
“While the footage does not depict an assault, the individuals pictured are seen in the vicinity of the alleged criminal incident during the alleged time of occurrence.”
Late Wednesday, police released images of two shadowy figures wearing dark clothing. There are no identifiable features in the images.
Investigators reviewed hundreds of hours of surveillance video footage from cameras along the route Smollett took from his downtown Chicago hotel to a nearby Subway restaurant.
The temperature was -10 degrees Fahrenheit that night.
A Subway employee told ET News the actor left the restaurant around 2:15 a.m. The Subway is a 4 or 5 minute walk from the Loews Hotel where Smollett was staying.
Smollett, 36, told detectives the two masked suspects recognized him as the singer/songwriter Jamal Lyon on the Fox hip-hop soap opera “Empire”, and they shouted, “Aren’t you that fa**ot” Empire ni**er?”
The actor said the men beat him up, placed a thin rope around his neck and threw bleach in his face during the attack.
Smollett still had the small rope — described as a clothesline, straight out the package – looped around his neck when police arrived at his manager’s apartment 40 minutes later.
Smollet’s manager drove him to the hospital, where he was treated for minor injuries and released Tuesday.
Chicago has one of the most expensive and sophisticated video surveillance systems in the US. Cameras are mounted everywhere on poles, buses and outside businesses.
Photos of people of interest who were in area of the alleged assault & battery of Empire cast member. While video does not capture an encounter, detectives are taking this development seriously & wish to question individuals as more cameras are being reviewed pic.twitter.com/xJDDygtocr
— Anthony Guglielmi (@AJGuglielmi) January 31, 2019
Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images
