IL - Actor Jussie Smollett allegedly attacked in hate crime being black & gay Jan 2019 *ARRESTS*

[FinePrint]

Do we know if Jussie owns the apartment in Streeterville or is he renting or is he someones guest? I don't have a unit number so I can't look it up in Cook County public records.

 

[coffeeandacig]

'I feel so selfish': Jussie Smollett's creative director speaks about attack

So let me see if I'm following this right...
The victim's Creative Director picked him up from the airport when he arrived on a delayed flight.

The Creative Director drops the victim off at the victim's apartment, where the victim informs the Creative Director he's hungry and he's going to walk to Subway for a sandwich. The Creative Director decides not to walk with the victim to Subway and then retreats to his own apartment or stays in the victims apartment?

The victim walks to the Subway alone a little after midnight (according to reports) and then walks home around 2 am.

At around the time of the attack at 2:00 am, the victim is on the phone with his Music Director who hears the attack "Aren't you that *** from Empire?" and "This is MAGA country.".

The victim goes to his apartment and the Creative Director is there? Or did the victim call the Creative Director to meet him at his apartment?

PS... The "shout out " to the professionalism of the CPD is quite an interesting insert to the interview with the Creative Director.

 

[FinePrint]

Yes, exactly what I'm confused about as well, who is who here. The victim seems to be in continuous communications with various types of directors. Interesting for the time of night or should I say morning.

Where is the Music director located. Is he in another city/state/country but is on the phone with victim when attack took place. Yet we know, or it has been reported that the person who was on the phone with the victim during the attack was interviewed by the police. ( this is the reason why CPD is negotiating with victims lawyer to obtain phone records to verify this conversion took place with this person and at the time reported) Was this person present at the victims apartment when police arrived to investigate the attack?

Does the Creative director live in the same building? He says he is the one who picked him (victim) up from the airport and seems to be upset that he didn't walk to the Subway just after midnight with him but is glad to have been at his apartment when he got back.

Yes. It is very important to praise the CPD in a shout out, can't hurt at this point.

 

[anonypotomous]

So many questions! So JS left around midnight to go to Subway, and gets attacked around 2am. Any word on where he was for those two hours? Just wandering around? Sitting at Subway? If he left for Subway at midnight, and he had the sandwich in the footage after the attack around 2am, I assuming he didn’t go straight to Subway. Seems like he left his place, went somewhere for a while, and then went to Subway.

Can someone make a map with a timeline?

 

[maggieg]

Where is the Music director located.

He described himself as a "West Coast Don" on his since deleted twitter page so I would assume hes LA based but I haven't read anything that says where he was at the time of the incident

 

[coffeeandacig]

New updates from Rob Elgas reporter and anchor, and Rafer Weigel reporter:

@RobElgas ABC Channel 7 - 17 hrs
"My Chicago reporting colleague @RaferWeigel is reporting police have new surveillance video from a red light camera. I haven not confirmed this with CPD but can tell you 1) There's a red light camera near the condo building where police were called..."

@RaferWeigel ABC Channel 7 - 47 min
"Since so many have asked me if @Chicago_Police will let #JussieSmollett case go unsolved, I’ll give my opinion. Given the high-profile nature of the crime, I don’t believe so. I believe they’ll either find the perpetrators responsible or charge #Smollett w/ filing a false report"

@RaferWeigel Channel 32 News -36 min
#Chicago is already dealing with a negative image when it comes to crime. Proving #JussieSmollett made up the story would go against that narrative. Conversely, @Chicago_Police bringing any suspects to justice for this horrible crime would bolster the dept’s image.

 

[FinePrint]

So in other words this can go on for sometime as they go through and eliminate footage that does not support the crime reported by the victim.

Even though every nook and crannie of the area of attack is covered by some type of camera LE will drag things out to give the appearance of having an ongoing investigation. They are in fear of public backlash if their evidence proves that the crime did not occur... Good use of tax payers dollars....

 

[moonriverfarm]

We are a sad lot when we would rather a crime DID occur than that it did not.

 

[wary]

We are a sad lot when we would rather a crime DID occur than that it did not.

There’s no doubt that a crime occurred. The only question is—what was the nature of the crime?

 

[coffeeandacig]

@rob Elgas ABC News Chicago Reporter and Anchor:
"Last Friday one of our (ABC News Chicago) assignment editors filed under FOIA, "requesting any police body cams involving Jussie Smollett including the very first officer on the scene and any other officer body cams that have any video and or sound.. or any police video from police cars".

Subsequent posts state CPD denied the request based on privacy, and it's not unusual to have requests for their body cam's to be turned off.

 

[coffeeandacig]

So in other words this can go on for sometime as they go through and eliminate footage that does not support the crime reported by the victim.

Even though every nook and crannie of the area of attack is covered by some type of camera LE will drag things out to give the appearance of having an ongoing investigation. They are in fear of public backlash if their evidence proves that the crime did not occur... Good use of tax payers dollars....

Yes, it doesn't seem this investigation will be wrapping up any time soon. And remember the CPD has called in the FBI to assist the CPD. The bill for this will be shared by the taxpayers of not only Chicago, but all taxpayers.
"Chicago police do tell me they are reviewing "red light cameras, pod cameras, hotel cameras, any cameras we can find"...
That 60 seconds or less that the victim was not on camera is the primary concern at this point.

 

[Tim Callahan]

IMO, the key to this whole thing is the letter that was sent to the studio about a week before this incident. Granted, "controversial" celebrities are lightning rods for hate mail and such, but it seems to me much more than coincidence that he receives the over-the-top ransom-style letter with "MAGA" scrawled on it (as well as the stick figures of a guy with a noose), and then is attacked a week later by some guys screaming "This is MAGA country!"

There's only three possibilities (details notwithstanding) related to the nature of the alleged attack itself:
1) It was a random attack
2) It was a targeted attack, undoubtedly connected to the letter
3) It was a fabricated attack or an actual attack that was embellished and/or whose motive was obscured

• If it were a random attack, that means there was someone that just happened to be out on the coldest night in 2 decades, that happened to have bleach and a noose on them, just waiting for a random person to unleash their racist and homophobic hatred upon, and happened to be a fan of a show not too many racists probably watch (thereby recognizing him) or were aware of (until now), and Jussie was the unfortunate victim of said attacker. Needless to say, very bad luck to be a victim of two hate crimes in one week, both mentioning "MAGA", yet unrelated to each other.

• If it were a targeted attack, then all of the issues of scenario 1 disappear; someone that hated him so much as to first send a threatening letter (after which Jussie refused security offered to him) is probably patient enough to hunt him down, even on the coldest night in two decades, track his every move, know just when to strike out of view of any video cameras, and of course be prepared with the noose and bleach. The "Hey, you're that --- --- from Empire" line was just a misdirection, because of course he knew who he was. And then of course the "MAGA" thing is no longer a coincidence. Yet, although the attacker had an accomplice (evidently this guy's hate and determination knew no bounds), Jussie fought back and emerged with just a scratch below his eye, and his sandwich and cell phone intact, albeit with a noose that was delicately placed around his neck that he left on for 45 minutes. Granted, some criminals do weird things, such as clean the houses they break into and whatnot, but I'd be thinking that someone that was so determined to hunt him down like that, and place a noose around his neck, would have at least TRIED to inflict more damage than they did, yet fortunately for him, didn't cause much physical damage (and oh, the whole cracked rib thing turned out to be untrue). So, scenario 2 has its share of issues as well.

• I'm not saying that any single thing in and of itself is implausible, but string it all together, and to me (IMO, etc.), sure seems like scenario 3 explains it with the least amount of issues.

 

[meanmaryjean]

Well said. 100% agree.

 

[Trident]

Whatever the truth, Jussie and his show, the name escapes me, got a lot of free publicity.

 

[anonypotomous]

Has someone made a map with a timeline yet?? If not, is anyone here good at that kind of thing?

 

[Lemmy_Cautions_Locutions]

So many questions! So JS left around midnight to go to Subway, and gets attacked around 2am. Any word on where he was for those two hours? Just wandering around? Sitting at Subway? If he left for Subway at midnight, and he had the sandwich in the footage after the attack around 2am, I assuming he didn’t go straight to Subway. Seems like he left his place, went somewhere for a while, and then went to Subway.

Can someone make a map with a timeline?

Hello, here's a map that I marked-up, showing Smollett's movements as he returned from the Subway to his lodgings. I'm also attaching a graphic that I created indicating the location of the CCTV camera that photographed the two "persons of interest" in the alleged attack. This is my first post to websleuths, so I hope I'm doing this right.

 

[Snoods]

IMO, the key to this whole thing is the letter that was sent to the studio about a week before this incident. Granted, "controversial" celebrities are lightning rods for hate mail and such, but it seems to me much more than coincidence that he receives the over-the-top ransom-style letter with "MAGA" scrawled on it (as well as the stick figures of a guy with a noose), and then is attacked a week later by some guys screaming "This is MAGA country!"

There's only three possibilities (details notwithstanding) related to the nature of the alleged attack itself:
1) It was a random attack
2) It was a targeted attack, undoubtedly connected to the letter
3) It was a fabricated attack or an actual attack that was embellished and/or whose motive was obscured

• If it were a random attack, that means there was someone that just happened to be out on the coldest night in 2 decades, that happened to have bleach and a noose on them, just waiting for a random person to unleash their racist and homophobic hatred upon, and happened to be a fan of a show not too many racists probably watch (thereby recognizing him) or were aware of (until now), and Jussie was the unfortunate victim of said attacker. Needless to say, very bad luck to be a victim of two hate crimes in one week, both mentioning "MAGA", yet unrelated to each other.

• If it were a targeted attack, then all of the issues of scenario 1 disappear; someone that hated him so much as to first send a threatening letter (after which Jussie refused security offered to him) is probably patient enough to hunt him down, even on the coldest night in two decades, track his every move, know just when to strike out of view of any video cameras, and of course be prepared with the noose and bleach. The "Hey, you're that --- --- from Empire" line was just a misdirection, because of course he knew who he was. And then of course the "MAGA" thing is no longer a coincidence. Yet, although the attacker had an accomplice (evidently this guy's hate and determination knew no bounds), Jussie fought back and emerged with just a scratch below his eye, and his sandwich and cell phone intact, albeit with a noose that was delicately placed around his neck that he left on for 45 minutes. Granted, some criminals do weird things, such as clean the houses they break into and whatnot, but I'd be thinking that someone that was so determined to hunt him down like that, and place a noose around his neck, would have at least TRIED to inflict more damage than they did, yet fortunately for him, didn't cause much physical damage (and oh, the whole cracked rib thing turned out to be untrue). So, scenario 2 has its share of issues as well.

• I'm not saying that any single thing in and of itself is implausible, but string it all together, and to me (IMO, etc.), sure seems like scenario 3 explains it with the least amount of issues.

Number 3 for the win.

I agree a lot of thought went into this, but not by any MAGA crazed men fixated on Jussie Smollett. IMO.

 

[Snoods]

Hello, here's a map that I marked-up, showing Smollett's movements as he returned from the Subway to his lodgings. I'm also attaching a graphic that I created indicating the location of the CCTV camera that photographed the two "persons of interest" in the alleged attack. This is my first post to websleuths, so I hope I'm doing this right.

Welcome! Your map and graphics aren't showing up for me, but I'd love to see them. Maybe try uploading them to tinypics and copying and pasting here?

 

[maggieg]

IMO, the key to this whole thing is the letter that was sent to the studio about a week before this incident. Granted, "controversial" celebrities are lightning rods for hate mail and such, but it seems to me much more than coincidence that he receives the over-the-top ransom-style letter with "MAGA" scrawled on it (as well as the stick figures of a guy with a noose), and then is attacked a week later by some guys screaming "This is MAGA country!"

The envelope is what gets me, if the purpose of the letter is so that it gets to its intended target (Jussie Smollett in this case) and scares him then the envelope does a very poor job of that. Theres no way that the envelope didn't raise a red flag with people at the studio and was therefore not opened in uncontrolled circumstances. The potential threat of the powder was eliminated safely and would not have caused any consternation for the person to whom the envelope was addressed.

The chances of someone opening a letter that has not been x-rayed or checked in someway would be way greater if it was sent to their apartment versus a studio lot. If the perpetrators of the alleged attack and the alleged threatening letter are the same then they have great intel on Jussie and it would make way more sense for them to have sent the letter to his apartment. If the attack is unrelated to the letter then Jussie has a much higher profile than I had thought. (perhaps I'm mistakenly trying to apply logic to what super far right nutters would do)

If there was some sort of MAGA plot to target Jussie or if there were whisperings of such I feel like we would have heard by now.

 

[maggieg]

No idea if this is accurate but as hes former NYPD it might be

@johncardillo "#JussieSmollett went too far. CPD is publicly still calling him a victim, but sources in the department tell me that the investigative focus has now shifted, and they’re investigating Smollett for the hoax."
John Cardillo on Twitter