Chicago’s Vast Camera Network Helped Solve Smollett Case
By: Tammy Webber, The Associated Press
Police tapped into Chicago’s vast network of surveillance cameras — and even some homeowners’ doorbell cameras — to track down two brothers who later claimed they were paid by “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett to stage an attack on him, the latest example of the city’s high-tech approach to public safety.
Officers said they reviewed video from more than four dozen cameras to trace the brothers’ movements before and after the reported attack, determining where they lived and who they were before arresting them a little more than two weeks later.
Smollett reported being beaten up by two men who shouted racist and anti-gay slurs and threw bleach on him. But his story fell apart when Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo — bodybuilders and aspiring actors whom Smollett knew from the “Empire” set and the gym — told police that Smollett paid them $3,500 to stage the attack because he was unhappy with his salary and wanted to promote his career.
