The motive behind the stabbings is still unclear, and the news came as quite a shock to his family.
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Dahir A. Adan, 22, is said to be a Somalian “soldier of the Islamic State” who emigrated from Africa to the USA with his family 15 years ago. Authorities have not confirmed a link to any terrorist groups, but a news agency tied to the Islamic State claimed within 12 hours of the attack that Adan was “a soldier of the Islamic State.”
Adan, who was born in Kenya, and his family left Somalia as refugees and settled in Fargo in the mid-1990s when he was 1-year-old, said Fowzia Adde, a local Somali leader.
Federal investigators say they’re looking at the attack as a potential act of terrorism after the Islamic State claimed the suspect had heeded its calls for attacks in countries that are part of a us -led anti-Islamic State coalition.
The president on Monday echoed Federal Bureau of Investigation officials, who have said they’re investigating Saturday’s stabbing of nine people at a St. Cloud mall as a potential act of terrorism. Investigators have found no evidence that he had direct or indirect communications with the Islamic State, or that the militant group planned the attack or knew of it beforehand.
Police have said the knifeman “made references to Allah” during his rampage and asked victims whether they were Muslim before attacking.
Dahir Adan had been in a “joyful” and “happy” mood on Saturday before he went to a St. Cloud, Minnesota, mall to buy a phone, a community leader told CNN on Monday.
Anderson said the man began attacking people right after entering the mall, stabbing people in several spots.
“You don’t really see much of the security guards and the ones that are there don’t seem to really have that urgency to run around and take care of safety issues”.
“It’s going to be tough times”. According to Anderson, most of the encounters were for minor traffic violations, none of which led to an arrest. He was a 2014 graduate of St. Cloud Apollo High School where he did well enough to earn college credit in some classes.
Gov. Mark Dayton said he was “appalled at the bad attacks on innocent Minnesotans in St. Cloud last night”.
Adan, who was an informations systems major at St Cloud State University, was roughly halfway through his studies, a school spokesman said.
The contractor assigned him to the factory complex of Electrolux, the Swedish-based maker of refrigerators and other home appliances, which inhabits a vast compound of white warehouses in St. Cloud ringed by barbed-wire fences alongside a railroad track.
Police told Ahmed Adan about 9 p.m. Saturday that his son had died at the mall, he said.
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 the Somali-American community reaction to the Crossroads Center attack. “We know it’s going to be a long winter for this community”, said Yusuf.
Minnesota harbors the largest Somali population in the United States, counting for up to 40,000 individuals. Avon Police Chief Corey Nellis said Falconer was the “right person at the right place at the right time”, according to the AP.
Kleis, the St. Cloud mayor, said Falconer “clearly prevented additional injuries and potential loss of life”, adding: “His heroic actions are exemplary”.
NBC2 reached out to mall management multiple times Monday to ask if they’re planning any security changes after Saturday’s attack, but they have not responded. She said she felt safe in St. Cloud until Saturday’s events.
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His profile also says he focuses on firearms and permit-to-carry training, and teaches “decision shooting” to law enforcement students at St. Cloud State University.
