“Thanks to the quick action of a fearless off-duty police officer, the suspect was killed and we avoided more people being hurt”, Obama said of the officer, who works for the police department in nearby Avon, Minnesota.
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At a news conference Sunday, FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Rick Thornton said the attack was being investigated as an act of terrorism and that agents were still digging into the attacker’s background and possible motives.
Numerous attacks that the Islamic State has claimed since the coordinated shootings and bombings in Paris in November have been carried out by individuals who were simply inspired by the group’s ideology and probably never came into direct contact with its operatives, The Post’s Max Bearak wrote in July.
President Obama said that the Minnesota attack was not believed to be connected to suspected bomber Ahmad Rahami’s planting explosives in NY and New Jersey.
Adan was a member of the local Somali community. “That’s not who we are”, said Haji Yusuf, Unitecloud Community director.
The suspect’s father, Ahmed Adan, first identified his son as the attacker in an interview with the Star-Tribune newspaper. On weekends, Adnan worked as a security guard at Electrolux Home Products.
According to police, he asked at least one person if they were Muslim and made references to Allah while carrying out the stabbings.
We express our deepest sympathy and condolences to all those injured and other who were impacted as a result of the incident at the Crossroads Mall.
The New York Times reveals that law enforcement officials are unsure if this statement rings true, suggesting to those who knew him that 20-year-old Dahir Adan may have been “self-radicalized” and chosen through his own right to fight for the Islamic State.
Adan – who has yet to be officially identified – was shot and killed by an off-duty policeman after Saturday’s attack, which the Islamic State group claimed as the work of one of its soldiers. The attacker whose name has not yet been released, is described as a St. Cloud resident with previous police interactions, but nothing violent. At the news conference Monday, State Rep. Jim Knoblach, who represents part of St. Cloud, asked people to put aside the anger they may have and not pass judgement. “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”.
Minnesota has the nation’s largest Somali community, with census numbers placing the population at about 40,000 but community activists saying it’s even higher. An ISIS news agency had earlier claimed that one of its supporters launched the attack.
“We need a 20-year moratorium on all immigration into this country”, he said.
“We are also concerned about the potential backlash uh to this community”, Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, told the press conference.
In the wake of a random stabbing attack at a St. Cloud, Minn., mall over the weekend, Fargo’s Somali community is trying to come to grips with the unsettling fact that the suspect grew up here. She said that she had heard that nearby stores had rushed in with toys and snacks to comfort the children until they could go home. Police say he was not a mall employee. Like Dahir Adan, they don’t care if we’re white or black, Christian, Buddhist, Hindu or Jewish or Atheist.
Aden’s fatal encounter with Falconer at Macy’s was caught on surveillance video. Security cameras from the scene showed Falconer shooting Adnan multiple times as he lunged for Falconer.
Abdi Nor Adan, a 27-year-old Somali-American college student who was not related to Adan, said, “A lot of people say he used to be cool, a nice guy”.
Mr Falconer, who now runs a gun range, was praised for his “bravery and quick action” by President Barack Obama.
Jason Falconer was carrying a weapon the night of the attack inside the Crossroads Center Mall, a mall which forbids people from bringing in “firearms or illegal weapons”.
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Forliti reported from Minneapolis.
