New body camera footage shows Jussie Smollett inside his apartment right after his alleged attackers ‘poured bleach’ on him and more, according to the ‘Empire’ actor. Jussie explains why he kept the noose on.
Police officers paid a visit to Jussie Smollett’s apartment shortly after suffering an alleged attack on Jan. 29, and the footage was finally released on June 24. The Empire actor reported that two men had shouted racist and homophobic slurs, poured bleach on him and tied a noose around his neck — in the new video above, Jussie’s manager Frank Gatson leads Chicago police officers inside the apartment to find Jussie (whose face is blurred) with ropes around his neck. It had been “more than 40 minutes” after the reported attack, according to TMZ. One of the authorities asks if the actor wants to remove the ropes, to which Jussie says, “Yeah, I do. I just wanted you all to see it.”
As Jussie unwinds the ropes from his neck, he adds, “There’s bleach on me, they poured bleach on me.” The Fox star also asks if he’s being filmed, and then says, “I don’t want to be filmed.” The footage goes dark, but it was just one of many clips and files that the Chicago Police Department released on Monday, in relation to the investigation into Jussie’s case.
The newly released video footage, which was obtained by HollywoodLife, clocked in at nearly 70 hours, which also included a video of brothers Abel and Ola Osundairo riding a taxi cab, wearing white hoodies and pants, before leaving the vehicle at 1:22 a.m., according to TMZ. Police had accused Jussie of hiring the men (one was reportedly an extra on Empire, the other Jussie’s personal trainer) to carry out a staged attack — Jussie had denied that the brothers were his assailants during a police interview on Feb. 14.
A grand jury indicted Jussie on 16 counts of filing a false police report on March 8 (which he pleaded not guilty to), but the Cook County State Attorney’s Office dropped all charges on March 26. This ruling shocked the Chicago PD and Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and a special prosecutor will now review how the case was handled per the request of a judge on June 21. Yes, that means Jussie could be charged again! “If reasonable grounds exist to further prosecute Smollett, in the interest of justice the special prosecutor may take such action,” the judge said, according to TMZ.
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