Two brothers have been arrested by the Chicago police. At least one of them had appeared on “Empire.” Charges have not been filed.
The brothers detained earlier this week by the Chicago police in connection with the reported attack on the “Empire” star Jussie Smollett were arrested and are now being treated as “potential suspects,” a spokesman for the department said Friday. They have not yet been charged with any crime.
“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,” Anthony Guglielmi, the spokesman, said in a statement.
The arrests reflected progress in an investigation that started at the end of last month, when Smollett told the authorities that he had been attacked early in the morning by two masked men who directed homophobic and racial slurs toward him in downtown Chicago. Smollett also told the police that the assailants had tied a rope around his neck and poured a chemical substance on him.
For weeks, the investigators, who treated the case as a possible hate crime, had few leads.
