{"id":267524,"date":"2019-02-14T09:52:12","date_gmt":"2019-02-14T16:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/b1015117"},"modified":"2019-02-14T09:52:12","modified_gmt":"2019-02-14T16:52:12","slug":"persons-of-interest-identified-in-jussie-smollett-attack-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/music-news\/persons-of-interest-identified-in-jussie-smollett-attack-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Persons of Interest Identified in Jussie Smollett Attack Case"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Chicago police have identified “two persons of interest”\u00a0amid their investigation into an attack on\u00a0Jussie Smollett<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Last month,\u00a0the 36-year-old\u00a0Empire\u00a0<\/em>actor told Chicago police he was attacked in the city by two men<\/a> who shouted racist and homophobic slurs at him, put a rope around his neck and poured an unknown chemical substance on\u00a0him before fleeing the scene. The news has been\u00a0met with much skepticism online, as for weeks, authorities did not make any arrests or unveil\u00a0evidence to back up his account.<\/p>\n

Smollett\u00a0sought treatment at a hospital after the attack and was revealed to be in good condition. Soon after he reported the\u00a0incident to police, Chicago investigators released surveillance video images showing two “persons of interest<\/a>\u00a0in the area of the alleged assault\u00a0and battery” of Smollett. Police said at the time that while the video “does not capture an encounter<\/a>, detectives are taking this development seriously\u00a0and wish to question individuals as more cameras are being reviewed.” On Thursday, the\u00a0office revealed that two persons of interest have been identified and are being questioned.<\/p>\n

“After a meticulous investigation with the use of advance technology, interviews with the victim and witnesses and transportation records, detectives have identified two persons of interest in the Empire<\/em> cast member case,” a Chicago Police Department spokesperson told E! News in a statement on Thursday. “Charges are pending.”<\/p>\n

“These individuals are not yet suspects but were in area of concern and are being questioned,” the spokesperson tweeted<\/a>. “Investigation continues.\u00a0The people of interest are alleged to be in the area<\/a> where a crime was reported…We remain in communication with the alleged victim.”<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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Smollett’s rep had no immediate comment on\u00a0the latest police statements.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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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 pic.twitter.com\/xJDDygtocr<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Anthony Guglielmi (@AJGuglielmi) January 31, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

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Amid the skepticism, the actor has stood by his account, also\u00a0telling the public<\/a>, most recently via a GMA<\/em> interview<\/a>, that he fought back against his attackers.<\/p>\n

“I’m pissed off,” Smollett said<\/a> on GMA<\/em>, referring to the doubts cast about his account. “It’s the attackers, but it’s also the attacks. You know, at first it was a thing of, if I tell the truth, that’s it, because it’s the truth. Then it became a thing of like, oh, how can you doubt that? How do you not believe that? It’s the truth. And then it became a thing of, oh, it’s not necessarily that you don’t believe that this is the truth, you don’t even want to see the truth.”<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

via:: E! Online<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chicago police have identified “two persons of interest”\u00a0amid their investigation into an attack on\u00a0Jussie Smollett. Last month,\u00a0the 36-year-old\u00a0Empire\u00a0actor told Chicago police he was attacked in the city by two men who shouted racist and homophobic slurs at him, put a rope around his neck and poured an unknown chemical substance on\u00a0him before fleeing the scene. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-267524","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-18 10:57:37","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KIDN - The Lift FM","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267524\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}