The Somali community in Minnesota has been bracing for backlash following the stabbings.
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The investigation is proceeding, and Adan’s family is cooperating.
USPSA Shooter, 3-Gunner, and NRA-certified firearms instructor Jason Falconer has been identified as the man who shot and killed a 22-year-old Somali immigrant who went on a stabbing rampage inside a St. Cloud, (MN) Mall on Saturday.
The city’s police chief said the man reportedly made at least one reference to Allah and asked a victim if he or she was Muslim before attacking.
“We are trying to find everything”, Anderson said. “I want to make sure he’s OK and give him a hug”, Anthony Bellow said. An ISIS-related news agency called Adan a soldier of the organization, but did not indicate he had prior contact with it.
Falconer is a former police chief of Albany, Minnesota and now works part time as an officer in Avon.
“As we mourn the death of our son, Dahir Adan, who was very dear to us, we are in deep shock as everyone else is in the State of Minnesota”. He was an “exceptional student” and “very smart”, he said.
He said Adan was wearing a security guard uniform and told people he was a police officer before the attack began.
“I think as mayor I get asked this question often, what keeps you up at night?”
The assailant was identified as Dahir Adan, a 20-year-old naturlized American from Somalia who has been in this country since he was a baby.
Minnesota has the nation’s largest Somali population, an estimated 57,000 people.
Fears of radicalized youths haveincreased recently within the community. Since 2014, nine Somali-Americans from that state were either convicted at trial or pleaded guilty in a plot to join ISIS by traveling to Syria.
Yussuf noted that the mall incident occurred amid a contentious United States presidential election, with its debates about restricting the flow of immigrants, and Somalis worry it could threaten the amity forged between them and their neighbors.
“It’s affected all of our community”, he said. “For 30 years people have been building bridges in our community and we are all afraid that this will disappear because of this one incident”. Members of the St. Cloud clergy met Monday afternoon in an attempt to aid the city’s recovery.
“This community, after this horrific tragedy, will move forward”, he said.
The stabbing attack that occurred at Crossroads Mall has since gained national attention.
Mr Anderson said Adan asked at least one of his victims if they were a Muslim before attacking.
Ashley Bayne, an employee of J.C. Penney at the mall, was visiting a co-worker at the time of the incident.
She later called and said she was safe in a secured area.
“All of sudden chaos just broke out”, Bayne said.
Though the mall’s security teams were on site, the security officers were not armed.
Ten people — eight men, one woman and a teenage girl — were injured in Saturday’s attack at the Crossroads Center mall; none of their injuries were life-threatening, according to authorities.
THIS is the suspected ISIS knife attacker who stabbed nine people in Minnesota while posing as a police officer.
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Authorities said Adan, the attacker, had three previous encounters with police.
