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Jacob Pederson Is Not the AutoZone Umbrella Man, St. Paul Police Say
By Jessica McBride
Updated May 29, 2020 at 7:46am
They are denying it is him, but they are not proving it was not him
St. Paul police say one of their officers is not the AutoZone umbrella man.
A viral and incendiary social media accusation against a St. Paul, Minnesota, police officer is false, the police department said in a statement. The situation shows how quickly information can spread on social media, ricocheting around the web and damaging people’s reputations, especially in a fast-moving situation like the unrest in the Twin Cities.
According to the police statement, the social media falsehood happened to Jacob Pederson, a St. Paul police officer who was erroneously accused of being the mysterious black-clad, umbrella-carrying man involved in methodically breaking windows at an AutoZone during the protests/riots in Minneapolis/St. Paul. Here’s a video of the umbrella man.
The police statement read:
We are aware of the social media post that erroneously identifies one of our officers as the person caught on video breaking windows in Minneapolis. We want to be perfectly clear about this: The person in the video is not our officer.
Our officer has been working hard, serving his community, keeping people and property safe, and protecting the right to peacefully assemble. It’s unfortunate that people would post and share this untrue information, adding more confusion to an already painful time in our community.