Empire star Jussie Smollet beaten in suspected homophobic attack

The men beat up Jussie, put his head in a noose and screamed as they left: “This is MAGA country.”

Sources directly connected to Jussie allegedly tell TMZ the actor arrived in Chicago from New York on Monday, and at around 2 AM he was hungry that he went to a Subway with plans to get some food. However, he was attacked.

When they saw Jussie, the men – both white – yelled: “Aren’t you that f*ot Empire n*a?”

They then viciously attacked Jussie. He fought back, but they beat him badly and fractured a rib. They put a rope around his neck, poured bleach on him and left.

Jussie took himself to Northwestern Memorial where he was treated. He was discharged later Tuesday morning.

This isn’t the first time Jussie has been targeted by homophobes. Eight days ago, a letter for Jussie was sent to Fox Studios in Chicago with cut out letters spelling, “You will die black f*g.”

The envelope the letter arrived in appears to say MAGA in the upper left corner and was shared by ThatGrapeJuice.Net.

GLAAD, an LGBT media advocacy group, has released a statement saying it has reached out to Fox and Smollett’s team offering assistance, calling him “a true champion for LGBTQ people [who] is beloved by the community and allies around the world.”

Chicago PD said they are investigating the attack as a possible hate crime, and they are searching the area for any video.