The two men taken into custody in connection with the reported attack of “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett were placed under arrest Friday, a police spokesman said.
The two men, ages 25 and 27, were still being questioned by detectives and had not been formally charged as of Friday afternoon, department spokesman Tom Ahern said.
Earlier in the day, Anthony Guglielmi, another police spokesman, said: “Detectives have probable cause that they may have been involved in an alleged crime, and we are working to corroborate the allegations and investigative timeline as our investigation continues.”
Detectives believe the men, both of whom are black, are the same people shown in a surveillance image released by police days after the purported attack, Guglielmi has said. The men allegedly yelled racial and homophobic slurs during the incident, which had been investigated as a possible hate crime police have said.
The men’s identities have not been released.
But a law enforcement source said the men are brothers, and at least one of them has worked on the show “Empire.” They are reportedly Nigerian, and had traveled to Nigeria the day of the attack before returning Wednesday, when they were arrested at O’Hare Airport, a source said.
Court records show that one was charged with attempted murder in a 2011 stabbing that occurred in the 4200 block of North Ashland. That is less than a block from the home that police raided Wednesday night, and recovered personal effects including cell phones, a source said.
The one brother reached a plea deal with prosecutors and was sentenced to two years of probation and was ordered to pay a $674 fine. His attorney in that case did not respond to interview requests.
Another attorney for the men, Gloria Schmidt, has told reporters the men knew Smollett.
“The have worked with him on ‘Empire,'” she told CBS2. ” … They’re baffled why they are people of interest.”
A North Side home was searched by police in connection with an investigation of an attack on actor Jussie Smollett. | Sun-Times/Nader Issa
The Chicago Sun-Times reported Thursday that police are investigating the possibility that the reported Jan. 29 attack was staged. However, on Friday Guglielmi again stressed that “there is also no evidence to say that this is a hoax.”
“The alleged victim is being cooperative at this time and continues to be treated as a victim, not a suspect,” he said of Smollett.
Smollett has told police that he was walking in the 300 block of East North Water Street about 2 a.m. when two people walked up to him, yelled the slurs, hit him in the face, poured a substance — suspected to be bleach — on him and put a “thin, light rope” around his neck.
The actor initially was “reluctant” to call police because of the attention he would generate as a public figure, Guglielmi previously said. But his manager eventually called at 2:42 a.m., about 40 minutes after the attack.
The actor said he was on the phone with his manager at the time of the attack. His manager has said that he could hear the attack over the phone and was able to hear the phrase “MAGA country” — the acronym from President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan.
Detectives allegedly traced the location of the men arrested through ride-hailing and taxi records from the area where Smollett said the attack happened, according to a law enforcement source. Police have video from a doorbell camera among other images of the men.
Thirteen days after he reported the attack, Smollett turned over “limited and redacted” phone records from that day to police, though investigators determined they were sufficient to conduct a criminal investigation.
Meanwhile, the letter that the FBI is investigating was sent on Jan. 22 to Fox and “Empire” offices and used “threatening language” toward Smollett, police said. The letter was laced with some type of white, powdery substance, according to Guglielmi.
A celebrity website, GrapeJuice.net, published a picture of the letter with the words, “You will die black f–,” written in letters apparently cut from magazines.
