Man reveals why he rescued right-wing influencer Jake Lang from crowd outside Minneapolis City Hall

Paul Walsh, Star Tribune on Jan 19, 2026

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MINNEAPOLIS — The man who stepped in and ushered conservative influencer and Jan. 6 rioter Jake Lang away from counterprotesters outside Minneapolis City Hall over the weekend said a sense of humanity inspired him in the moment.

Isaiah Blackwell, 30, was the man dressed in black and wearing dark sunglasses who tucked himself in a City Hall window well Saturday next to Lang, who was in the city for his anti-Islam rally, which was scrapped before he could carry out his plan to burn a Quran and march to the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, home to Minneapolis’ highest concentration of Somali American residents.

Hundreds swarmed upon Lang, who was soaked on the frigid afternoon with shots from water guns and draped with silly string from the crowd.

After being pulled down from the window ledge, Lang was pressed against the wall as the amped-up crowd closed in. Just a handful of Lang supporters showed up for the rally.

Only Blackwell, face-to-face, kept Lang from being fully engulfed by his detractors.

Blackwell soon led Lang away from City Hall, at times clutching him by one arm or guiding him from behind with hands on his shoulders.

Lang said on social media that he suffered a bloody blow to the head at one point before he found his escape.

Blackwell told the Minnesota Star Tribune that he stepped in because “I’m a man, and I believe all humans should be treated the same. It doesn’t matter.”

Regardless of his politics and views about Somali immigrants, Lang “has a story to tell, like I have a story to tell,” said Blackwell, of Minneapolis. “I took my voice, and I told them, ‘Don’t touch him. Let him go.’ I made a space so he could get out of there.”

Blackwell said he came to City Hall at that time because “God, my Father, told me to stop by. I just had to stop by.”

Echoing many who witnessed Blackwell’s concern for Lang, former Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak said, “Lang saw that Black man as less than him. The Black man saw Lang as a human being.”

Lang’s appearance in the Twin Cities came amid a federal crackdown on undocumented immigrants that is showing no signs of easing.

He served four years in prison for attacking Capitol police with other rioters on Jan. 6, 2021, before being pardoned by President Donald Trump. He’s now a 2026 candidate for U.S. senator in Florida.

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