Jamal Lyon whose real name is Jussie Smollett who acts as an openly gay in the hip hop musical drama series Empire says he is angry that some people doubted his statement that he was attacked outside his Chicago apartment. He says; ”I’m pissed off, It’s the attackers, but it’s also the attacks.”
He told Chicago police he was attacked by two men who shouted racist and homophobic slurs at him and put a rope around his neck. The assailants hit him in the face and poured and unknown chemical substance on him. The news sparked outrage on social media, but some questioned Smollett’s account with many expressing outrage while others suggested it was a hoax after police were unable to find videotape of the attack Smollett said he sustained.. The Chicago police have not found any surveillance video evidence and have made no arrests though they treated the case as a possible hate crime.
He had earlier defended as completely truthful the account he gave of being accosted on a Chicago street by men who used racist and homophobic slurs and said he was cooperating with police. The statement was the first he had made publicly about the alleged assault since media reports about it first surfaced.The matter is being investigated by Chicago police.