If he honestly got a hate crime committed on him (which seems extremely unlikely at this point), I feel terrible for him.
But, if he lied, he stretched a very thin police force even thinner. They had to heavily investigate because the story became political. That same weekend a 1-year-old child was shot in the head, he is currently still in ICU. Smollett's case had 20 to 24 cops investigating in. How many detectives do think were investigating that child's shooting? By all accounts significantly less.