The two attackers who brutally beat up actor Jussie Smollett in Chicago reportedly bit him, according to a new report released by the Chicago Police Department on Monday that reveals shocking new details about the brutal attack that is currently being investigated as a hate crime.
The report detailed that the pair of attackers used not only their hands and feet but also their teeth to beat up the 36-year-old, who was eventually taken to the hospital and treated for several lacerations to his face. The two men were fully dressed in black, with one of them also wearing a mask, in the evening of last Tuesday. They jumped on the Empire star as he was walking back to his apartment, but because of the black mask that concealed “any facial features,” Smollett could not provide “any other distinguishing features of the offenders,” as per the Daily Mail . However, the actor, who plays a gay musician on the hit show, did tell police officers that one of the assailants was between 5-foot-10 and 6-foot-1 and weighed around 170 pounds.
The police report also states that it was a friend of the victim who decided to call the authorities, as Smollett didn’t want to report the attack. When officers found him, he still had “white rope draped around” his neck and wore “stained clothing,” which was “soaked in an unknown substance” that has been widely reported as bleach. The brutal beating happened on Tuesday, January 29, at around 2 a.m. after the actor-singer exited a Subway restaurant and made his way to his Chicago apartment.
I FOUGHT BACK: Jussie Smollett made his first public appearance since being attacked in Chicago last week in what he and his family say was a racial and homophobic hate crime. https://t.co/63QjtuMzpG pic.twitter.com/2zG0xGxmV4
— CBS News (@CBSNews) February 4, 2019
Footage from CCTV cameras captured the moment Smollett walked down a street while the two attackers sat on a bench facing him before they both stood up and walked away, with the three eventually walking out of the cameras’ view. The Hollywood star told police that the assailants yelled homophobic and racial slurs at him before beating him “about the face with their hands.” Another camera near his apartment building later showed him entering the house with the rope still around his neck and his clothes dirty.
‘I’m the gay Tupac’: Jussie Smollett clarifies attack details in first public appearance https://t.co/JP6HzEc7m9 pic.twitter.com/JklPrsa6ou
— The Washington Times (@WashTimes) February 3, 2019
Brandon Z. Moore, Smollett’s manager, said he was on the phone with the actor at the time and that he heard the attackers shouting “this is MAGA country!” It has also been confirmed that Smollett had received homophobic hate mail just a week before the crime, but that he refused to have 24/7 security with him. The hate mail was reportedly sent to the Empire filming studio, with staff being horrified upon finding the letters.
