On Monday (June 24), Chicago police released their case files and video from the night of Empire actor, Jussie Smollett’s alleged attack.
According to ABC 7 Chicago, they released 70 hours of footage from their bodycam, parts of which showed Smollett with a rope tied multiple times around his neck, the night he alerted the authorities about the supposed attack.
In the video, Smollett explained that he was attacked by two individuals who put the noose over his head and drenched him in bleach. The 37-year-old’s face is blurred out in the video because at the time of the recording he was still considered a victim under the Freedom of Information Act.
Smollett’s manager, Frank Gatson, also appears in the video, saying that the actor does not want the incident to be “a big deal.”
“He doesn’t want this to be a big deal, you understand what I’m saying,” Gatson tells the authorities in the video. “The thing that makes me emotional is they put this makeshift loop, what do you call that thing, a noose around his [expletive] neck. I’m sorry, you know. And that is what bothers me, the cut thing doesn’t bother me at all. If that makes sense.”
Later in the video, Gatson confirms that the police are recording them and moments after Smollett says that he doesn’t want to be filmed. “Can we turn it off?” Gatson asks the police, who soon abide by his request.
In the video clips released by the authorities, footage of the alleged attackers, Abel and Abimola “Ola” Osundairo are also included. The Chicago police have visuals of the Osundairo brothers in a taxi en route to their supposed meet-up point with Smollett to initiate the attack, as well as clips of them being apprehended by the police at the airport.
Chicago police claim that these videos prove their case that Smollett staged the racist and homophobic hate crime.
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