A man was arrested Tuesday after he blocked traffic on I-94 in Minneapolis, harassing drivers and forcing them to say Ricky Cobb’s name before they could drive away.
“He’s stopping cars and calling people pussies and racists if they won’t say Ricky Cobb’s name,” Crime Watch Minneapolis reported. “He’s taking down license plate numbers.”
Video from MN DOT traffic cameras shows the man, Jonathan Mason, in the middle of the highway stopping vehicles. Mason livestreamed the whole thing to his Facebook page.
“If y’all tuning in, this is Jonathan Mason live on the scene. First one on 94, shutting it down,” he says in the video as he walks through traffic.
“That’s it. Stop. You’re done. Get his license,” he later says as he blocks a vehicle from moving. “Somebody got murdered. You care? Ricky Cobb. Say his name. I want you to say his name.”
Later in the video, he stops a woman in a gold van and says: “Say his name or you not gonna go. She not going nowhere until she say his name.” He then repeatedly calls the woman “a racist.”
He's stopping cars and calling people pussies and racists if they won't say Ricky Cobb's name. He's taking down license plate numbers. 🤣🤡 pic.twitter.com/rTt4AZIaDe
— CrimeWatchMpls (@CrimeWatchMpls) August 1, 2023
Before his protest, Mason, who calls himself the “Godfather of Minnesota,” asked the public for assistance in finding “names, addresses, church locations, [and] family members” of the officers involved in the shooting of Cobb. “We must find them and arrest them and they’re presumed to be armed and dangerous,” Mason’s post read. A comment on the Facebook post called his request “on the fringe of illegal.”
“The whole state, the world, knows who I am,” Mason told police prior to being arrested. Based on live videos on Mason’s Facebook page, it appears law enforcement officers gave Mason a ride off of the highway before ultimately placing him under arrest.
“They kidnapped me,” the next post from Mason said. “I’m in jail.”
Video captured by someone at the scene shows officers placing Mason in the back of a truck while he yells at the man recording, “Help, bro. Help, bro.”
He was booked on charges of public nuisance and pedestrian in the roadway and released five hours after his booking, according to Crime Watch Minneapolis.
A court date was set for August 15, though Mason claimed on Facebook that “charges will be dropped.”
Jonathan Maurice Mason, 01/08/1987, arrested and in custody after walking onto I-94 earlier and harassing, swearing at, and calling motorists names (see our prior post).
Misdemeanor tab charges of public nuisance and pedestrian on the roadway. pic.twitter.com/c1EhlZOfHa— CrimeWatchMpls (@CrimeWatchMpls) August 2, 2023
Following his release, Mason continued to post on social media, saying, “State Patrol kidnapped me yesterday after agreeing the[y] would drop me off on the top of the ramp with a binding agreement through a hand shake and video evidence.”
He accused the arresting officers of torturing him and trying to break his arm. He explained that he will be filing a lawsuit against the agencies involved in his arrest for “Kidnapping and Trafficking and torturing me and violating my first amendment rights.”
“I got more charges than the officer that killed Ricky Cobb II,” wrote Mason, who was reportedly the campaign manager for Republican congressional candidate Royce White. “Make it make sense.”
Cobb was shot by a state trooper early Monday during a traffic stop. The investigation into his death is ongoing and the officers involved have been placed on administrative leave as is common in situations involving use of force. Body camera footage from the incident was released Tuesday. Once the investigation is complete, the case will be referred to Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty for a charging decision.
Hayley Feland
Hayley Feland previously worked as a journalist with The Minnesota Sun, The Wisconsin Daily Star, and The College Fix. She is a Minnesota native with a passion for politics and journalism.
