2 men tied to beating are also black
CHICAGO — The investigation into black actor Jussie Smollett’s account of being beaten in a racist, anti-gay attack took another turn Friday when police here said two men arrested in the case are also black.
Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the two were picked up Wednesday at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, and their apartment was searched Thursday. But they had not been charged by Friday afternoon, and police released them.
Smollett, who is gay, has said two masked men beat him after shouting racial and homophobic slurs and tied a rope around his neck before running away early Jan. 29.
The two suspects, whom police previously identified only as Nigerian brothers, were taken into custody after police learned that at least one of the men worked on “Empire,” according to Guglielmi. He said he did not know what the man’s job was on the television drama.
Guglielmi’s comments followed a furious 24 hours that included local media reports that the attack was a hoax. Police say those reports are unconfirmed.
Producers of the television drama also disputed media reports that Smollett’s character, Jamal Lyon, was being written off the show, calling the idea “patently ridiculous.”
Guglielmi reiterated Friday that there was “no evidence to say that this is a hoax” and that Smollett “continues to be treated by police as a victim, not a suspect.”
Smollett told ABC News that the men police took into custody Wednesday were the ones who hurled racial and homophobic slurs at him, beat him, threw a chemical substance and looped a rope around his neck.