A man caught on surveillance video smashing windows in a Minneapolis AutoZone following the death of George Floyd is a member of Hell’s Angels bent on causing social unrest, police said.
Nicknamed “Umbrella Man” for his all-black outfit that included a hood, gas mask, and black umbrella, police said the man’s actions caused arson, the first of several that sent peaceful protests into chaos.
Police identified the 32-year-old suspect through a notice last week. Minneapolis police spokesman John Elder told the Associated Press Tuesday that he could not confirm the name of the person involved, but said the investigation remains open and active.
A man poses in flames in the parking lot of an AutoZone store, while protesters hold a demonstration against the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 27. (Carlos González / Star Tribune via AP)
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“This was the first fire that sparked a series of fires and looting across the compound and the rest of the city,” Minneapolis police arson investigator Erika Christensen wrote in a search affidavit this week, according to the Star Tribune.
The riots spread to other parts of Minneapolis and St. Paul, causing an estimated $ 500 million in damage. At least two people died: one, a man who was fatally shot in a Minneapolis pawn shop, and another whose burned body was found in the ruins of another pawn shop.
Floyd, a black man, died on May 25 after a white Minneapolis police officer named Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes despite Floyd’s screams that he couldn’t breathe. Floyd was handcuffed at the time.
Sandra King, 70, waits for her granddaughter near the remains of AutoZone in front of Minneapolis’ third police compound in Minneapolis on May 28. (Carlos González / Star Tribune via AP)
Protests and riots erupted across the country in the days, weeks, and even months after the news of his death.
A video recorded two days after Floyd’s death on May 27 showed “Umbrella Man” smashing the windows of an AutoZone store with a sledgehammer. Some protesters asked him to stop.
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Before that, the man spray-painted an impromptu phrase on the front doors, police said. The AutoZone fire was the first firefighters responded to during the civil unrest, Minneapolis Fire Marshal Assistant Bryan Tyner said Tuesday.
In the affidavit, Christensen wrote that he saw “countless hours” of video on social media platforms trying to identify the suspect with no luck. An informant then sent an email to the Minneapolis Police Department identifying him as a member of the Hell’s Angels motorcycle gang that “wanted to sow discord and racial unrest by breaking windows and writing what he did on the double red doors,” according to the statement. sworn.
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An investigation found that the man was also an associate of the Aryan Cowboy Brotherhood, a white supremacist prison, and a street gang based primarily in Minnesota and Kentucky. Several of its members were in Stillwater, in eastern Minnesota, late last month when a Muslim woman confronted a group of men wearing white supremacist attire.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
