Maryland 's attorney general is asking the public for information about an unidentified man in a widely shared video who appeared toassault a young girl who was posting George Floyd flyers in Montgomery County.- "If anyone can identify this man, please let me know," Attorney General Brian Frosh said in a tweet on Thursday.
- The chilling video, which shows the man grab a flyer encouraging people to seek justice for Floyd's death, had been viewed more than 20 million times on
Twitter as of Friday morning.
Maryland's attorney general is seeking information about an unidentified man in a widely shared video on social media who appeared to assault a young girl who was posting George Floyd flyers in Montgomery County on Monday.
"If anyone can identify this man, please let me know," Attorney General Brian Frosh tweeted on Thursday, adding the phone number to call with tips and the name of the state's attorney in Montgomery County.
A group of young people on Capital Crescent Trail, a path near Dalecarlia Tunnel in Bethesda, were posting flyers encouraging people to seek justice for Floyd's death, ABC7 reported. In the video, a man riding a bike storms toward a young girl as others yell at him to stay away from her. He grabs a flyer from the girl's hands and crumples it. Another person yells at him to "get off of her," to which he replies, "F--- you."
He then appears to charge toward the person filming the encounter, knocking them over.
—Victor Stoddard (@VicStoddard) June 4, 2020
Though text overlaid on the clip says "June 2, 2020," the Montgomery County Park Police said in a tweet that the incident occurred on Monday. The chilling video, posted on Twitter by Victor Stoddard on Thursday, had been viewed 20 million times as of Friday morning.
Frosh asked that people with information about the man not post on social media to expose or doxx him, as has become common when bad behavior goes viral. "Hundreds of thousands of bikers, myself included, use this path," Frosh tweeted in response to other men being misidentified as the biker online.
In an email to Insider, a representative for Frosh said they could neither confirm nor deny whether the attorney general's office was involved in the investigation. They said the Park Police were spearheading the search for the man, adding, "This was a horrible attack that should be investigated to ensure the person is held accountable."
The Department of Parks did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
The group posting the flyers told ABC7 that it said "KILLER COPS WILL NOT GO FREE" and, below that, "Text 'Floyd' to 55156." Texting "Floyd" to that number yields an autoreply directing the texter to a Color for Change petition demanding murder charges for the officers who killed Floyd.
Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer who knelt on Floyd's neck as Floyd shouted that he couldn't breathe, has been charged with second-degree murder. Three other officers who stood by as Floyd lost consciousness have also been charged with aiding and abetting murder. Floyd's death on May 25 has sparked protests against police brutality and racism across the US and around the world.
A previous version of this article said the incident took place on Tuesday. It took place on Monday, according to the Montgomery County Park Police.
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