Empire Star Jussie Smollett Victim of Vicious Homophobic Attack

A visit to a Chicago Subway sandwich shop took a horrible turn for Empire star Jussie Smollett in the wee hours of Tuesday morning when he was brutally attacked.

According to TMZ, the actor who portrays Jamal Lyon on the hit Fox show was attacked by two white men who recognized him as his gay character from the show. The actor himself came out as gay in 2015.

Smollett had arrived in Chicago just hours earlier from New York and had found himself hungry, so he went to the Subway to get a sandwich. When he exited the shop, he ran into the two men who were wearing ski masks.

The site reports that the two attackers “beat him up, put his head in a noose and screamed, ‘This is MAGA country.'”

Sources close to the actor told TMX that someone said to him, ‘Aren’t you that f***ot ‘Empire’ n*****?”

The young actor was taken to Northwestern Memorial where he was treated for his injuries and released later Tuesday morning. Police are investigating and told TMZ’s sources that they are treating it as a possible hate crime.

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