Chicago police release bodycam footage in Jussie Smollett investigation - Global News

CHICAGO  — Chicago police on Monday released hundreds of files from the investigation into Jussie Smollett’s claim he was attacked by two men, including releasing video footage for the first time of the “Empire” actor wearing a thin white rope wrapped around his neck that he told detectives was a noose.Story continues belowThe footage from a body camera worn by a police officer who responded on Jan. 29 to what Smollett said was a racist and homophobic attack by two large men has blurred out Smollett’s face because, police explained, he was considered a victim at that point. But footage shows the officers walking into the apartment, where they encounter the actor wearing the rope, before one asked him, “Do you want to take it off or anything?”“Yeah,” said Smollett, before unwinding the white rope, loosening it and placing it on the kitchen counter.READ MORE: Judge orders special prosecutor to examine Jussie Smollett probeIn all, police released nearly 1,200 different individual files on Monday, including thousands of pages of documents, arrest reports and handwritten notes from police. Added up, there is more than 90 hours of video, much of it hour after hour of surveillance cameras high above city streets.As the hunt for the two men Smollett said attacked him continued for weeks, some in the city started to wonder if the whole thing was a hoax. And those suspicions made it into the documents, with a Feb. 25 email from a sergeant saying that she’d received a tip from a caller whose name is redacted.“He has a friend close to the inner circle of the subject. The friend shared that the entire event was orchestrated by (redacted).”The footage itself illustrates the growing skepticism within the police department, starting with the fact that much of it was retrieved from surveillance cameras that police collected as they tried to piece together the route that two brothers took across the city to the spot where police say they acted out a staged attack of the actor.WATCH: Jussie Smollett deal in the works when charges dropped, documents show

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June 25, 2019 at 09:23AM