Minneapolis investigators said the man is a member of the Hells Angels biker gang who started violence at what had been a peaceful protest.
While named in the affidavit, the man has not yet been charged with any crime and so BuzzFeed News is not naming him. The man did not immediately respond to requests for comment for this story.
MPD arson investigator Erika Christensen wrote in the affidavit that the man’s actions at what had previously been largely peaceful demonstrations helped trigger a rash of looting and fires, noting that the AutoZone was later burned to the ground. Prior to smashing the store’s windows, the man also spray-painted"free shit for everyone zone" on its doors, according to the affidavit.
“Until the actions of the person your affiant has been calling ‘Umbrella man,’ the protests had been relatively peaceful,” Christensen wrote. “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.” Christensen reviewed hours of footage from TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, and YouTube in an attempt to identify the “umbrella man,” but was unsuccessful, she wrote. He was ultimately identified last week via a tip emailed to the Minneapolis Police Department.
The tipster identified the suspect as a 32-year-old biker and told Christensen that the man intended to “sow discord and racial unrest by breaking out the windows and writing what he did on the double red doors.”, a white supremacist prison gang based out of Minnesota and Kentucky, Christensen wrote.
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