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Video of person in apparent KKK robe riles R.I. town
The hooded individual, who appeared to be wearing a white Ku Klux Klan robe, was seen walking around West Warwick.
A Rhode Island community is on edge after social media videos appeared to show a person in a white Ku Klux Klan robe and hood walking around town in the middle of the night.
The West Warwick Police Department said it is investigating the incident, which happened on Main Street around 2 a.m. Monday.
“At this time, no additional similar reports have been received before or after this incident, and it appears to be isolated in nature,” West Warwick police said. “There is no known threat to public safety.”
The department encouraged anyone with information or surveillance footage to contact detectives at 401-827-9044.
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Ryan Fitzgerald filmed the hooded figure while he and his brother were driving past the Arctic Gazebo early Monday. He told The Boston Globe he initially thought the person was “just messing around,” though he wasn’t necessarily surprised by the sight.
“There’s a lot of undisclosed racism that goes on here. I hear about it all the time,” Fitzgerald told the Globe. “So it wouldn’t be shocking to me if it wasn’t a prank, and it wasn’t a hoax, and it was really somebody that really was about that kind of life.”
His video shows the robed person walking away from the gazebo area, with Fitzgerald and his brother following at a distance. The individual then stops and turns to face the camera as the two men drive past.
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“When somebody looks at you that you can’t see, you just see their eyeballs, that’s freaking creepy, man,” Fitzgerald told the Globe.
The hooded individual was also caught on surveillance video passing Candy’s Curiosities & Vintage, a Main Street business. Writing on social media, shop owner Leslie Letourneau described feeling “absolutely disgusted that [the robed person] stopped by to pay me a visit.”
“Try it during the day,” Letourneau added. “Dare ya.”
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