WATCH: Chicago Police release video showing Jussie Smollett with a noose around his neck
Then body-cam footage was reportedly obtained after the actor's alleged attack.
Chicago police have released body-camera footage of Jussie Smollett meeting with police officers with a noose around his neck on the night he reported he was attacked in Chicago.
Check out the video:
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The video was obtained by Chicago’s ABC7, and came from body-cam footage from the officers who arrived to speak to the actor after he alleged he suffered a racist and homophobic attack.
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In the video, Jussie Smollett is wearing a noose around his neck as he briefly speaks to the uniformed police officers in his apartment before he asks them to turn off their body-cameras. His face is blurred in the video, but Smollett can be heard explaining that his attackers put the noose around his neck and confirming he would like it removed.
“He doesn’t want this to be a big deal, you understand what I’m saying,” Smollett’s manager says 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 (fu***ng) neck. I’m sorry, you know. And that is what bothers me, the cut thing doesn’t bother me at all. If that makes any sense.”
“They are filming,” Smollett’s manager tell Jussie. “Can we turn it off?”
“Yeah,” replies the officer. “You are giving us permission to shut it off?”
According to reports, the Chicago Police Department released more than 70 hours of video footage connected to the investigation on Monday.
Earlier this month, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx offered the new public explanation in a statement issued along with the release of 2,000 pages of documents in the case, which also refer to the rumors arising as suspicions grew that Smollett, who is Black and gay, staged the attack against himself.
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Her statement and the documents, which included internal office communications, illustrate how Foxx and her office at times agonized over whether she should recuse herself at all and over how to explain the decision in March to drop all charges that accused Smollett of lying about the assault and making a false police report. Smollett claimed he was the victim of a racist, anti-gay attack in downtown Chicago in January.
“False rumors circulated that I was related or somehow connected to the Smollett family, so I removed myself from all aspects of the investigation and prosecution … so as to avoid even the perception of a conflict,” she said in the statement.
But previous explanations suggested that she recused herself in February because of communications with a Smollett family member as the investigation of the reported attack was ongoing.
