R. Kelly | Instagram

Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx approached the podium Tuesday as a mother, prosecutor, and sexual abuse survivor. 

“I’m here today to encourage victims of sexual assault or domestic violence related to these [R. Kelly] allegations to please get in touch with my office,” Foxx said at her office.

She then read the number to her Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Division: 773-674-6492. 

About an hour or so after TMZ reported that R&B singer R. Kelly now is being investigated by Georgia authorities, Foxx invited the media to her office to address concerns about Kelly.

Last week, Lifetime’s Surviving R. Kelly docuseries sparked multiple days of conversation on and off social media in Chicago. The six-part docuseries wove through harrowing accounts of accusers, patterns in Kelly’s mental and sexual abuse, and present-day searches in Chicago for the Black girls – now women – who disappeared with Kelly years ago.

On Tuesday afternoon, TMZ reported that Georgia authorities opened a criminal investigation on Kelly.

The TRiiBE reached out to the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office via email today.

“We do not have any comment at this time,” wrote Chris Hopper, the Fulton County DA Office’s director of public affairs.

Later in the afternoon, Foxx told the media that her department hadn’t spoken to authorities in Fulton County, Georgia. However, two families have reached out to the Cook County State’s Attorney Office with information about Kelly.

“We have received a number of calls from relatives of people in contact with Kelly in the last couple of years,” Foxx said.

Like many others, Foxx tuned in for the Surviving R. Kelly docuseries. 

“I was sickened by the allegations. I was sickened as a survivor. I was sickened as a mother. I was sickened as a prosecutor,” she said.

That’s why she approached the media today. She hopes that anyone with information on Kelly will reach out to her office. With cooperation from witnesses and victims, there isn’t anything that her department can do. 

“Please come forward,” Foxx said. “We need actual witnesses and victims to have the courage to tell their stories.”