MINNEAPOLIS — Two Minneapolis women on their way to happy hour became unwitting participants in a violent clash when January 6 Capitol insurrectionist Jake Lang jumped into their car while fleeing counter-protesters on January 17.
Jake Lang’s “March Against Minnesota Fraud” was supposed to be a show of far-right strength in Minneapolis. The 30-year-old conservative influencer had promised on social media that thousands of “Christian Crusaders” would descend on the city to burn a Quran on the steps of City Hall and march through Cedar-Riverside, the neighborhood with Minneapolis’s largest population of Somali American residents. Lang also lied about having a permit to stage in City Hall’s historic rotunda, where he instead found the building locked due to normal business hours.
Lang drew fewer than a dozen supporters to City Hall while hundreds of counter-protesters converged on downtown Minneapolis in 9-degree weather with below-zero windchills. What Lang envisioned as a triumphant rally quickly devolved into chaos as counter-protesters overwhelmed his small group, pulling him from a City Hall window ledge where he was attempting to speak and chasing him four city blocks through downtown.
Daye Octavia and her friend Leah were driving to Tom’s Watch Bar for cocktails when they encountered the fleeing activist. Lang, bleeding from a head wound and soaked from water balloons hurled by counter-protesters, ran up to their red sedan at a stoplight and begged to get inside.
“We see him run up to our car, and he’s like, ‘Can I please get in? Can I please get in? Like, they hurt me so bad.’ That’s all the context we have,” Octavia said in a video posted to TikTok shortly after the incident. “So in our heads, it’s like, ‘Oh, my God, like, was he just attacked by ICE?'”
The women, both vocal opponents of recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in Minnesota, believed they were helping someone who had been targeted by federal agents. They had no idea Lang was the organizer of the anti-Islam, pro-ICE demonstration that had drawn the massive counter-protest.
“We thought ICE was after him. So we’re like, ‘Okay, whatever, like, hop in the freaking car real quick,'” Leah said. “And then all of a sudden, there’s a whole bunch of people coming here and storming us and like, beating up the car, ruining the car, pulling this dude out.”
Counter-protesters surrounded the vehicle from every angle, banging on the windows and doors. Someone broke a taillight. Protesters tried to pull Lang from the car while the women sat trapped at the intersection.
“They broke a tail light, was banging on the car, whatnot. They tried to rip him out the door. Like, they was like, opening the door and shit. Wild,” Octavia said. “The longer we sat there, the longer he fought them off and the more damage was happening to Leah’s car. So we had to leave with him in the car. Like, there was no ifs, ands, or buts about it.”
While several physical altercations occurred during the demonstration, the vast majority of the hundreds of counter-protesters who showed up remained peaceful, chasing Lang and his small group away through chants and non-violent tactics including water balloons and snowballs. Only a small fraction of demonstrators engaged in physical confrontations with Lang and his supporters. Counter-protesters waved signs reading “Minnesota Nice, Not ICE” and “ICE out now” while chanting through megaphones.
The women drove around the block with Lang still in the vehicle, growing increasingly uncomfortable with their passenger. When Leah demanded to know whose side he was on, Lang mentioned President Donald Trump.
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“He’s just like, ‘Oh, Trump something, me, I gotta own back.’ And I’m just like, ‘Yeah, I don’t care what Trump did for you. Like, ICE is fucking shit. Like, who are you?'” Leah said. “And then I find out who he is. I’m like, ‘I don’t care if your Uber’s here. You’re not gonna wait in my fucking car.'”
The women ordered Lang out immediately and demanded his contact information to pay for the damage to Leah’s vehicle.
“We literally just go around the block. And I’m like, you know what? Like, you need to get out,” Leah said. “I do not support you. Like, speak your mind, whatever. But like, I do not support what this is all about. Like, this is not okay.”
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Lang’s failed rally took place amid unprecedented tensions in the Twin Cities. The Trump administration has deployed more than 2,000 federal immigration officers to Minneapolis and St. Paul, with protests erupting daily since the January 7 killing of Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother of three and U.S. citizen, by ICE officer Jonathan Ross. Good’s death sparked widespread outrage, with demonstrators criticizing masked federal agents for pulling people from homes and cars.
Lang, pardoned by Trump after serving four years in pretrial detention for his role in the January 6 Capitol attack, had positioned his rally as a protest against alleged fraud in Minnesota’s social services programs. Federal prosecutors are investigating what they estimate could be billions of dollars stolen from programs intended to help low-income residents since 2018, with most defendants charged so far being of Somali descent.
President Trump has repeatedly invoked the fraud investigation as justification for sending thousands of immigration agents to Minnesota, repeatedly singling out the state’s Somali community in racist terms and referring to them as “garbage.”
Lang never burned the Quran as promised and never reached Cedar-Riverside, where a separate group of anti-ICE protesters stood guard. Lang’s small group, which included supporters holding an American flag with raw bacon stuffed inside a Quran, blasted music including the song “Ice Ice Baby” but struggled to be heard over counter-protesters. Among Lang’s supporters were Michael Anderson, 42, of Forest Lake, and Zak X, 36, of St. Cloud, who told The Minnesota Star Tribune that he had escorted Lang to the rally after they became friends the previous week. X had been charged with misdemeanor assault after attacking an anti-ICE protester outside the Whipple Federal Building in December.
Octavia, who grew up in a small town in southern Minnesota and moved to Minneapolis in early November to develop her music career, told the Daily Planet that the experience was surreal and infuriating.
“My day just took a 180 so fast,” Octavia said. “If you happen to see our faces at all, because we, I literally, it felt like paparazzi was everywhere, fucking snapping pics. If you happen to see us, please know that we do not support this man whatsoever.”
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In a statement provided to us after the incident, Octavia clarified that while she doesn’t regret the split-second decision to help someone she believed was injured, learning Lang’s identity changed everything.
“I usually try not to get myself involved in politics and things like that because I feel like it’s very mentally draining and does make a lot of people super hateful,” she said. “I also don’t regret our decision to let him in the car, obviously now that I know who he is I’m NOT a fan and I don’t agree with anything he stands for, but violence isn’t the answer, and I really hope this is a wakeup call not only to Jake Lang, but also to the small fraction of protesters who thinks violence is going to get them justice.”
Leah expressed frustration about being caught in the middle of the conflict. “We thought we were helping someone who was protesting against ICE, and that didn’t turn out to be the case,” she said.
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Federal prosecutors had charged Lang with 11 criminal offenses including civil disorder, obstruction of an official proceeding, and assaulting law enforcement officers during the January 6 Capitol attack. His indictment included detailed descriptions of how he “repeatedly, and strategically, attacked the officers guarding the Capitol with that bat.”
Lang is now running for U.S. Senate in Florida in the seat vacated by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
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Lang claimed on social media that he had been stabbed during the protest and posted photos of what he said were injuries requiring staples. He set up a fundraising page seeking $20,000 for hospital bills that has raised more than $8,000. The Minneapolis Police Department confirmed it was aware of social media accounts claiming Lang had been assaulted but noted no police report had been filed. The department reported no arrests were made during the downtown demonstrations.
Minnesota National Guard troops were mobilized at the direction of Democratic Governor Tim Walz to support the Minnesota State Patrol in providing traffic support and protecting residents’ right to peaceful assembly, though guard spokesperson Major Andrea Tsuchiya said troops were “staged and ready” but had not been deployed.
