The Chicago police released two surveillance photos late Wednesday night of two figures they said are “persons of interest” in the Jussie Smollett attack.
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Tweeted Chicago PD spokesman Anthony Guglielmi: “Hours ago #ChicagoPolice detectives located a surveillance camera that shows potential persons of interest wanted for questioning in reference to the assault & battery of Empire actor. A community alert w/ photos is being constructed and will be disseminated shortly….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”
TMZ adds that a woman who lives in Smollett’s apartment building saw a suspicious man just an hour and a half before the Empire actor was attacked by two men who poured bleach on him and put a noose around his neck while using racist and homophobic slurs.
TMZ reports: ‘The woman — who asked us not to use her name — tells TMZ, she walked out of the building at 12:30 AM Tuesday to take her dogs out and saw the man near the door, pacing between the parking garage and entrance, looking agitated and smoking a cigarette. She says, “He looked out of place.” He was a white man with scruff on his face wearing a blue winter beanie, a blue zip-up sweatshirt with a hood and blue jeans that were too short, exposing “thick, grey hunting socks” with camel-colored dress shoes. She says she noticed what looked like a rope, or a clothesline, protruding from the bottom of his sweatshirt, made of white and blue material. She says he was staring at another man about 300 feet away, who was standing near another entrance to the building. She says she got “creeped out” by the man, and after 5 minutes she retreated back into the building.’
