“This has been a dark day; it is a day we will never forget”, said Hersi. “It does not represent Islam, and it does not represent Somalis”.
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The off duty officer who shot the suspect is Jason Falconer of Avon, Minnesota.
On Sunday, the Associated Press reported an Islamic State-run news agency called Rasad claimed the suspect was a “soldier of the Islamic State”.
CNN can not independently this latest claim. In a media briefing after midnight Sunday, Police Chief William Blair Anderson said an off-duty officer from another jurisdiction confronted and fatally shot the suspect Saturday night inside Crossroads Center. Anderson said Falconer fired as the attacker was lunging at him with the knife, and continued to engage him as the attacker got up three times. He said police said nothing to him about the mall attack, and that he had “no suspicion” that his son had been involved in terrorist activity, the newspaper reported.
St. Cloud is about 70 miles (112.65 kilometers) northwest of Minneapolis.
The Somali community has confirmed adan was the stabber. Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Center for American-Islamic Relations Minnesota, talks with reporters during a press conference Sunday, Sept. 18, 2016, at Lake George, in St. Cloud, Minn., expressing t.
“The news of the St. Cloud mall was shocking to the friends, relatives and community of the deceased …”
“Whether that was a terrorist attack or not, I’m not willing to say that right now because we just don’t know”, he added.
Authorities said earlier there were eight stabbing victims. The immigrant community has been a target for terror recruiters in recent years.
“We don’t know whether the suspect was in contact, had connections with, or was inspired by a foreign terrorism organization”, he said.
The suspect, who has not been officially identified, was said to have been wearing the uniform of a private security firm when the attack occurred. He reportedly praised Allah and asked one of the injured if they were Muslim before he stabbed them.
Ashley Bayne, an employee of JCPenney at the mall, was visiting a coworker at the time of the incident.
Three college freshmen who were shopping at a Minnesota mall when a man stabbed eight people say they saw two bloodied men stumble from a hallway.
“All of sudden chaos just broke out”, Bayne told CNN.
Image: Terrifying Shoppers are pictured crawling across the floor as they try to escape the mall.
The St. Cloud mall remained on lockdown following the attack, and authorities eventually released those inside. The department says they will not answer questions related to the stabbing incident and Falconer himself will not be present at the meeting. According to Anderson, most of the encounters were for minor traffic violations, none of which led to an arrest. Police said multiple people were injured at the St. Cloud shopping mall on Saturday evening in an attack possibly involving both shooting and stabbing. “Not only did he fire, the suspect went down, came back up on three different occasions”.
Gov. Mark Dayton said in a statement issued Sunday afternoon that he is “deeply grateful to the heroic law enforcement officer, whose swift response prevented an even worse attack”.
The St. Cloud mall was slated to reopen Monday.
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Chief Anderson said the attack had changed the city forever.
