Empire star Jussie Smollett was brutally attacked and hospitalized in Chicago on early Tuesday morning (January 29) after an apparent hate crime, TMZ has confirmed.
The incident, which was first reported by ThatGrapeJuice, reportedly went down around 2 AM by two men wearing ski masks. Smollett had just arrived in town from New York and made a late-night run to a Subway when someone yelled: "Aren't you that f**got 'Empire' n**ga?" Both of the Caucasian men proceeded to attack the actor as he fought back, but they ended up beating him up and fracturing his rib. They also put a rope around his neck, poured bleach on him and yelled "This is MAGA country" during the incident. Smollett was admitted to Northwestern Memorial Hospital and has since been released.
TMZ sources revealed that Smollett had received a disturbing letter eight days earlier with cut out letters reading: "You will die f**." Law enforcement sources told TMZ that the Chicago PD is investigating the incident as a battery and potentially treating the incident as a possible hate crime.
"Given the severity of the allegations, we are taking this investigation very seriously and treating it as a possible hate crime," Chicago Police Department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said. "Detectives are currently working to gather video, identify potential witnesses and establish an investigative timeline. The victim is fully cooperating with investigators, and we ask anyone with information about this incident to contact Area Central Detectives at 312-747-8382 or report it anonymously to www.cpdtip.com."
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