St. Paul Police release new video to refute online rumors about officer

St. Paul Police released new video on Monday in an attempt to quell online rumors that one of the department’s officers was involved in vandalism of a Minneapolis business after the death of George Floyd last month.

Police say video from security cameras proves the officer in question was still at the Richard H. Rowan Public Safety Training Center in St. Paul when a man dressed in all black, wearing a gas mask and holding an umbrella, used a hammer to smash out the windows of an AutoZone on Lake St. in Minneapolis just after 6:30 p.m. on May 27th.

Soon after witness video of the vandalism surfaced, several social media accounts on Twitter claimed the masked “umbrella man” was actually a St. Paul Police officer.

5 EYEWITNESS NEWS is not naming the officer who is identified in the tweets which have been retweeted or shared more than 100,000 times.

“People continue to click ‘share,’ they continue to send us messages, they continue to throw this disinformation out into the internet and it’s dangerous,” said St. Paul Police public information officer Steve Linders.

Police say the officer in question can be seen on security camera video arriving at the training center in St. Paul about three hours before the vandalism at the AutoZone in Minneapolis.

The department provided additional video that it says shows the officer was still at the training center location several minutes after alarms indicated windows breaking at AutoZone, about nine miles away in Minneapolis.

“We know from AutoZone that ‘umbrella man’ smashed that window at 6:32 (p.m.) and 58 seconds… it’s physically impossible for him to have been there,” Linders said. “Whether people are genuinely concerned and think that this might be one of our officers, whether they haven’t heard that we’ve debunked it, or whether they’re spreading this lie maliciously, we need to show them everything we can.”

The extra effort to clear up the online rumor was welcomed by Kristen Hawkinson, who has been volunteering with High Hope’s Free Kitchen to feed those in need on Lake St. where the AutoZone and other businesses were destroyed.

“I’m a skeptic on both sides of issues. I’m always trying to seek the truth. I hate misinformation being spread,” Hawkinson said.

“I would hate to say ‘yeah that’s him because it looks like him’ because what if it’s not? Then that guy’s reputation is hosed. I feel like we have to be very vigilant about a process of discovering the truth instead of just letting our emotions come out.”

5 INVESTIGATES contacted some of the Twitter accounts responsible for sharing the claim that “umbrella man” is a police officer, but they have not yet responded.

Minneapolis police spokesman John Elder said the vandalism and arson at the AutoZone are still under investigation, but that there is “no indication” that the umbrella carrying suspect is tied to “any law enforcement” agency.

St. Paul Police say the officer targeted in the social media posts is now back on the job and the department is taking undisclosed steps to make sure he’s safe as rumors continue to circulate online.

“It’s undermining this officer’s reputation, it’s putting him in danger… and it erodes the trust that St. Paul Police has worked so hard to build with our community,” Linders said.