Umbrella Man 'protester' who sparked George Floyd mayhem is Hells Angels-linked white supremacist, police say
In the days after George Floyd’s death, surveillance videos showed a man breaking windows at a Minneapolis auto store. Informally dubbed “Umbrella Man,” he was dressed in black, sporting a gas mask and carrying an opened umbrella.
The May 27 video showed him casually breaking the windows of an AutoZone with a hammer, as some protestors asked him to stop. Before that, police say, he had spray painted “free (expletive) for everyone zone” on the store. “Those cops will come for you if you’re pulling that crap,” a man can be heard saying on the clip.
Minneapolis police, the Star Tribune reports , say that the man sought to incite racial tension as he walked up the street causing mayhem. His actions, they said, led to violence and looting. The store itself was later burned down.
“This was the first fire that set off a string of fires and looting throughout the precinct and the rest of the city,” Sgt. Erika Christensen wrote in a search warrant affidavit, the Star Tribune reported.
“Until the actions of the person your affiant has been calling ‘Umbrella Man,’ the protests had been relatively peaceful. The actions of this person created an atmosphere of hostility and tension. Your affiant believes that this individual’s sole aim was to incite violence.”
The Star Tribune wasn’t able to independently verify the police account, which the force said came to it through an anonymous email tip. The unnamed man hasn’t been charged with a crime, although he has a criminal history that includes convictions of domestic violence and assault, the Star Tribune reports. The man did not respond to their request for comment.
This video was removed from YouTube. It shows exactly who broke windows at AutoZone. Please retweet and help identify the instigator. #JusticeForFloyd pic.twitter.com/D17kGL404J
— Javier Morillo 🇵🇷🏳️🌈 (@javimorillo) May 28, 2020
The email tip identified the 32-year old man as a member of the Hell’s Angels who “wanted to sow discord and racial unrest by breaking out the windows and writing what he did on the double red doors,” according to Sgt. Christensen’s affidavit.
Protesters involved in the George Floyd demonstrations have long blamed much of the violence that ensued on outside provocateurs.
The man has also been linked to an incident of racist harassment in Stillwater, Minnesota reported by the Star Tribune last month. In that incident, a Muslim woman and her four-year old daughter were confronted by several men wearing the insignia of the Aryan Cowboy Brotherhood, a Minnesota- and Kentucky-based white supremacist gang.
“They’re another group that’s basically a farm system, a minor league for the Hells Angels,” Paul Shoemaker, a former St. Paul’s police officer, told the Star Tribune.
Leaked intelligence memos released in June, part of a trove known as “Blue Leaks,” show that agencies were monitoring white supremacist and biker gang activities in the area as the George Floyd protests erupted, the Star Tribune reports.
In one, it was outlined how certain biker gangs were planning to take advantage of the unrest to step up drug trafficking activities. The same memo showed bikers associated with white supremacist groups had discussed inciting riots while posing as members of Antifa, the leftist activist group.
