Umbrella Man

Submission 4,396

Part of a series on 2020 George Floyd Protests. [View Related Entries]

About

Umbrella Man refers to a viral video of a man dressed in black, wearing a black mask and holding a black umbrella smashing windows at an AutoZone retail store during the 2020 George Floyd Protests in May 2020. Minneapolis Police Department arson investigator Erika Christensen stated that the incident was "the first fire that set off a string of fires and looting" that took place in the hours after the death of George Floyd, a black man who died after a former police officer kneeled on his neck for roughly eight minutes.

Origin

On May 27th, 2020, two days after Floyd's death, a live stream showed the Umbrella Man smashing windows at an AutoZone retail store in Minneapolis, Minnesota. YouTube later removed the video. However, the following day, Twitter user @javimorillo shared a version of the clip. They wrote, "This video was removed from YouTube. It shows exactly who broke windows at AutoZone. Please retweet and help identify the instigator. #JusticeForFloyd." The post received more than 306,000 views, 3,200 retweets and 2,900 likes in less than three months (shown below).

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

Spread

Following the release of the video, many online attempted to identify the Umbrella Man online (example below).

PLEASE whatch and retweet this video (not necessarily my tweet) to help finding out who he is, and what organization he belongs to‼️ Thank you‼️✊🏻😷😷😷😷😷 pic.twitter.com/38eneNhuBS

— 🥚🌊🥚🌊🥚egg🥚🌊🥚🌊🐣 (@AnEggOnABeach) May 30, 2020

Another man in the video named "Pink Shirt Pizza Guy" also became notorious online. On May 27th, Facebook user Emma.Fiala.7^[7] interviewed "Pink Shirt Guy" (mirror below).

Identification

On July 28th, 2020, authorities announced that they identified the suspect from the video. According to the Star Tribune,^[1] police believe the suspect is "a member of the Hell’s Angels biker gang seeking to incite racial tension in a demonstration that until then had been peaceful."

Minneapolis Police Department arson investigator Erika Christensen wrote in an affidavit report that the incident "was the first fire that set off a string of fires and looting throughout the precinct and the rest of the city." Christensen continued:

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.

Last week, a tip emailed to the Minneapolis Police Department identified a 32-year-old biker as the suspect. The tip stated that his aim was to "sow discord and racial unrest by breaking out the windows and writing what he did on the double red doors." The tip continues to identify the man as a member of the Hells Angels and the white supremacist gang the Aryan Cowboys. They also believe that the same man was photographed at incident in Stillwater, Minnesota last month, during which members of the Aryan Cowboys harassed a Muslim woman.^[2]

Redditors on numerous subreddits discussed the suspect's identification as a white supremacist, including threads in /r/news,^[3] /r/politics,^[4] /r/Minneapolis,^[5] /r/Minnesota^[6] and more.