Jussie Smollett’s neighbor told cops she saw suspicious men outside their building in the hours prior to his attack.
TMZ reports that an unidentified woman living in Smollett’s building told cops that a “redneck” was hanging around the entrance of their building prior to the attack.
The woman — who asked us not to use her name — tells TMZ, she walked out of the building at 12:30 AM Tuesday to take her dogs out and saw the man near the door, pacing between the parking garage and entrance, looking agitated and smoking a cigarette. She says, “He looked out of place.” He was a white man with scruff on his face wearing a blue winter beanie, a blue zip-up sweatshirt with a hood and blue jeans that were too short, exposing “thick, grey hunting socks” with camel-colored dress shoes.
She says she noticed what looked like a rope, or a clothesline, protruding from the bottom of his sweatshirt, made of white and blue material.
She says he was staring at another man about 300 feet away, who was standing near another entrance to the building.
She says she got “creeped out” by the man, and after 5 minutes she retreated back into the building.
When she awakened hours later to head to the gym, authorities in the lobinformed her of what had taken place. She then reported what she’d seen hours before.
To see the first surveillance photos of the men suspected in the racist, homophobic attack on Smollett, flip the page.