Police Chief Explains How A Sandwich Lead To The Arrest Of Jussie Smollett
Chicago Police Chief Eddie Johnson said that he knew early on that the former actor Jussie Smollett was full of crap. Johnson said it was Smollett's sandwich that first tipped him off.
“Looking back on it, the part about the noose — but what really struck us oddly — because at that time, I had been a cop 30 years, 31 years. And so I had been in the detective division working homicides, a lot. … What really struck us all was the fact that he got attacked on the coldest night of the year during a polar vortex. It was insanely cold. So, nobody was out,” Johnson said Friday on NewsNation’s “Morning in America,” describing the case against Smollett.
“But I tell you one thing that really tipped us off that there was a problem,” he continued. “If somebody gets jumped like that — so let me back up a bit. He went to a Subway sandwich shop at like two in the morning to get a sandwich. Okay, that’s fine. He comes back, gets attacked in a hate crime, supposed hate crime, and during all this scuffle, they poured bleach on him, and all of this, when he got up and went into his apartment building, he still had that Subway sandwich with him. That doesn’t happen.”
“When people get attacked like that, whatever belongings they have out there, they usually leave it until the police can go back with them because they’re afraid. This guy had the sandwich in his hand, and [it had] never been touched. That was a real tip and a clue to us that something was amiss.”
A jury on Thursday found Smollett guilty on five counts of disorderly conduct related to the incident. He has not yet been sentenced, but is facing up to three years in prison on each count, NBC Chicago reported.
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The kicker is, Johnson said Smollett never had to face charges. Once he was caught in his lie, he could have simply apologized and nothing would have happened. It was Smollett's instance and drain on resources that landed him behind bars.
“Let me say this: myself and Mayor [Rahm] Emanuel at the time, we were upset about the fact that [he] stained our city like that, and we put all that manpower into it, but I just want people to understand this, too,” he said. “This isn’t the heinous crime of the century. He didn’t kill anybody. He didn’t blow up a building. So, we would have been more than happy with just an apology at the end of all of that, after we uncovered what we did, but for some reason, they just wanted to keep going down this road that he was actually a victim.”
