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The unusual case of Jussie Smollett has taken a few turns since our last reporting on the situation. After combing through hundreds of hours of surveilance footage, the Chicago Police Department found two persons of interest. They released blurry images of two people seen walking around outside near the location they determined the attack likely took place in the 300 block of East North Lower Water Street between 1:30am and 1:45pm.
“They are outside on a street walking,” said police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi. “They are in the area that we have determined it could have taken place… in the time and the area. It certainly leads us to have questions for them.’’
He said detectives “still have a lot more cameras to look at. But now that we’ve got potential persons of interest, the focus will be following their paths. Where did they come from and where did they go?”
While the attack happened, Smollett said he was on the phone with his manager. His manager said the same thing, so the police have requests to see their phone records. And that’s because the two have a financial relationship together and they needed to independently verify their claims. The only problem is Jussie is refusing to turn over his phone which seems to play into the already fueling sentiment many have about the truthfulness of his story.
His family has now chimed in calling the attack a “racial and homophobic hate crime” in a statement today. “Jussie has told the police everything from the very beginning,” the actor’s family said. “His story has never changed, and we are hopeful they will find these men and bring them to justice.”
They went on to say “We want people to understand these targeted hate crimes are happening to our sisters, brothers and our gender non-conforming siblings, many who reside within the intersection of multiple identities, on a monthly, weekly, and sometimes even daily basis all across our country.”
Rep. Bobby L. Rush (D-Ill.) sent a letter to the FBI Wednesday stating he was “disturbed” by the attack and requested a hate-crime investigation. If that is so, there’s a chance Jussie will speak to the FBI soon and if any of his claims turn out to not be true, that is a federal offense with up to 5 years of prison as a punishment.
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