Minneapolis 'umbrella man' was white supremacist seeking to stir racial tensions, police say

Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} Police say a man who vandalised a store amid George Floyd protests in Minneapolis was a white supremacist who tried to stir tensions over the black man’s death. The “Umbrella Man”, who smashed an AutoZone store’s windows with an umbrella in hand, had been seen in viral video shared online. Christensen said police were not able to ascertain who “Umbrella Man” was, until a tip last week that said he was a Hells Angels biker gang member who “wanted to sow discord and racial unrest by breaking out the windows and writing what he did on the double red doors,” she wrote. Investigators discovered that “Umrella Man” was also an associate of the Aryan Cowboy Brotherhood, a small white supremacist prison gang centred around Minnesota and Kentucky with connections to the Hells Angels, according to the affidavit Floyd’s death in Minneapolis police custody on May 25 sparked protests against police brutality and systemic racism across the US for weeks, whilst some riots occurred in Minneapolis late May.