Jussie Smollett's friend claimed his alleged attackers "put a noose around his neck" in a newly-released 911 call.
The 'Empire' star's pal, said to be the actor's manager, is said to have made two calls to the emergency services to report the alleged attack, in which he doesn't reveal the star's name and says the actor "didn't want me to call you guys".
In one of the calls, which were obtained by The New York Post under a Freedom of Information Act request, he said: "I work with an artist - I don't really want to say his name - but he states that he went to Subway he was walking by and some guys somebody jumped him or something like that, and I just want to report it and make sure that he's alright."
Asked why Jussie didn't call himself, he replied: "He was cool, he didn't want me to call you guys.
"He's definitely gonna make the report. I'm gonna make him make the report.
"I just think he's startled. I'm scared and I don't know what it is - they put a noose around his neck.
"They didn't do anything with it, but put it around his neck. That's pretty f**ked up to me - sorry for saying it like that."
Afterwards, he called back to find out where the police were.
He said: "I reported I've been waiting on the police. I thought they'd be here by now."
Jussie previously claimed he was jumped by two men during the alleged attack in Chicago in January, but two brothers then alleged he had paid them to stage an attack.
He was told in March he wouldn't be charged over allegations he orchestrated a racist and homophobic attack on himself.
What's more, Jussie was said to have been working on a plea deal over allegations he staged the hate attack, one month before charges were dropped.
According to a 460-page document released last week - which detailed the timeline of how detectives handled Jussie's case - prosecutors told Chicago police detectives, just days after Jussie's arrest, that he would be let off the alleged crimes with a $10,000 fine and an undefined amount of time in community service.
However, the documents show there was no mention of dropping the charges against the actor, and detectives only discovered they "could no longer investigate the crime" when Jussie was indicted on disorderly conduct charges on February 28, a month after his initial claims were made.