There are two new developments in the vicious racist and homophobic attack against “Empire” star, Jussie Smollett, as cops have confirmed to ABC News that they have located video of the “rope like a necktie” draped around the actor’s neck.
The video was captured by his building’s surveillance cameras as he walked through his lobby.
A neighbor also told police that she had seen a suspicious man- whom she described as looking like a “redneck”-loitering around, just outside the entrance to the building about 90 minutes before the time Smollett says he was attacked.
The woman, who spoke exclusively to TMZ and asked that her identity be withheld, said she went out to walk her dogs around 12:30 am Tuesday when she spotted a man near the door, pacing in between the building’s parking garage and the entrance. She described the man as looking “agitated” while smoking a cigarette.
She said, “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.
The eyewitness said, according to the publication, she noticed what looked like a rope, or a clothesline, protruding from the bottom of his sweatshirt, made of white and blue material.
She also said he was staring at another man about 300 feet away, who was standing near another entrance to the building. She got “creeped out” by the man, and after 5 minutes she went back into her building.
When the woman left the building at 4 am later that morning, the doorman informed her that Jussie was attacked and she then told him about what she saw. The doorman then urged her to contact detectives.
While cops are still trying to locate video evidence of the actual attack, they have released some still shots of “persons of interest” who were seen on surveillance videos in the area around the time of the attack. In the meantime, the Smollett family has released a statement about the ”racial and homophobic hate crime.”
“In the early hours of Tuesday morning, our beloved son and brother, Jussie, was the victim of a violent and unprovoked attack,” the statement read. ”We want to be clear, this was a racial and homophobic hate crime. 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.”
”We want people to understand these targeted hate crimes are happening to our sisters, brothers and our gender non-conforming siblings, many who reside within the intersection of multiple identities, on a monthly, weekly, and sometimes even daily basis all across our country. Oftentimes ending fatally, these are inhumane acts of domestic terrorism, and they should be treated as such. They will continue to occur until we hold each other accountable. Make no mistake, words matter. Hateful words lead to hateful actions. Radical love is the only solution, but passivity will be our downfall. We, as a family, will continue to work for love, equity and justice until it reigns supreme in our nation and all over the world.”
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