Jussie Smollett sat down for his first televised interview since he said he was attacked in Chicago last month in what police are looking into as a hate crime.
The actor spoke to Robin Roberts on Good Morning America on Thursday and detailed what happened on Jan. 29, addressed people who don’t believe his story and said that he worried that his attackers wouldn’t be brought to justice, according to PEOPLE.
“I don’t know. Let’s just hope that they are, you know what I’m saying? Let’s not go there yet,” Smollett said when asked if could heal if his attackers were never found. “I was talking to a friend and I said, ‘I just want them to find them.’ And she said, ‘Sweetie, they’re not going to find them,’” he said. “That just made me so angry. So I’m just going to be left here like this? I’m just going to be left here? They get to go free, go about their life, and possibly attack someone else. And I’m here left with the aftermath? That’s not cool to me. That’s not okay.”
The Chicago Police Department said that the Empire actor was involved in a “racially-charged assault and battery,” and has released photos of two persons of interest. Smollett said he was attacked by two men in the early hours on Jan. 29, who placed a rope over his neck and hurled racist and homophobic slurs at him.
“I want that [surveillance] video found so badly for four reasons,” Smollett said. “Number one, I want them to find the people that did it. Number two, I want them to stop being able to say ‘alleged attack.’ Number three, I want them to see that I fought back. And I want a little gay boy who might watch this to see that I fought back. It does not take anything away from people who are not able to do that, but I fought back. They ran off, I didn’t.”
Check out his interview with Robin Roberts below.
