Police won't demand 'Empire' actor Jussie Smollett turn over cellphone - NBC News

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Feb. 1, 2019, 2:28 PM GMT

By Elisha Fieldstadt

Chicago police won't demand "Empire" star Jussie Smollett hand over his cellphone to detectives working to investigate the alleged assault on the actor by two men hurling racial and homophobic slurs, the department's superintendent said Friday.

"The allegations as reported to us are horrendous," Chicago Police Department Superintendent Eddie T. Johnson told NBC Chicago.

Johnson said the department wouldn't require Smollett to hand over his cell phone, which police said Thursday he has refused to do. Requests made on Thursday to Smollett's representatives for comment about the cellphone were not returned.

"He’s a victim. We don’t treat him like a criminal," Johnson said, adding that the actor has "been very cooperative with us" in the investigation.

"Jussie has told the police everything from the very beginning. His story has never changed, and we are hopeful they will find these men and bring them to justice," Smollett's family said in a statement

Smollett, who came out as gay in 2015, told police that he had gone for a bite to eat in the upscale Streeterville neighborhood about 2 a.m. Tuesday when two men yelling racist and homophobic slurs attacked and injured his face.

He said the attackers, described only as men in dark clothing and ski masks, doused him with a chemical and wrapped a rope around his neck, police said. A source familiar with the investigation to NBC News that the chemical was believed to be bleach.

In a follow-up interview with police, Smollett said one of the assailants yelled out, "This is MAGA country," which Smollett's manager, who said he was on the phone with the actor, also confirmed to police.

Police are investigating the alleged attack as a possible hate crime, and U.S. Rep. Bobby L. Rush, D-Illinois, sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray Wednesday calling for a federal hate crime investigation into the attack.

Police have reviewed hundreds of hours of footage from more than 20 surveillance cameras in the area, and have not found images of the alleged attack but on Wednesday released surveillance pictures of two "potential people of interest."