A video of a man walking around in a Ku Klux Klan robe in Rhode Island shocked many into believing racism was making a resurgence — but police say it was something else entirely.
The video shows the man skulking around a gazebo on Main Street in West Warwick at about 2 a.m. Monday and went viral on social media.
‘It’s weird because I know there’s racism around here, but not like that. That’s a whole different level of racism.’
“When you see a pointy hood and two eyeballs staring at you, I mean what the hell else is it?” local Ryan Fitzgerald said. “It didn’t look like the boogeyman. It looked like the KKK to me.”
He added, “It’s weird because I know there’s racism around here, but not like that. That’s a whole different level of racism.”
The hooded man was also caught on surveillance video from a business named Candy’s Curiosities & Vintage. The owner said the video upset her.
“It churned my stomach to watch that,” said Leslie Letourneau.
The video made national headlines and led to an investigation from the West Warwick Police Dept. Only days later, police said the jig was up.
It turns out the video was recorded by Fitzgerald and his brother Sean.
In a press release Friday, police said they had dedicated “significant investigative resources” to the incident and determined that the brothers had “orchestrated the event in an effort to generate attention on social media and in the news.”
RELATED: Activists rage over racist vandalism at Sacramento school. The district says it was a hoax.
The brothers admitted the scheme and provided evidence that they alone were responsible for the incident, according to police. The brothers told WJAR that Ryan wore the robe while Sean filmed him.
They also denounced the KKK, and police found no evidence that the two had any affiliation with the group.
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