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“I am proud to stand with these leaders today to really offer a message of hope, a message of a community and we are proclaiming from this tragedy we can move forward”, said Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Of the nine people stabbed, only one had life-threatening injuries. “You know what I mean, just to kind of let it simmer down a little bit”, said Gove.
Meanwhile, the Crossroads Mall is set to reopen today for the first time since a stabbing attack Saturday. That was before the Islamic State began urging “lone wolf” attacks in countries that are part of a USA -led coalition against their group.
Police say they have identified 20-year-old Dahir Adan as the man suspected of stabbing multiple people in a Minnesota mall on Saturday.
None of the stabbing victims died in the attack.
Ismail Ali, a student at St. Cloud State University where Adan attended college, said the city was at a crossroads.
“I think as mayor I get asked this question often, what keeps you up at night?”
The security firm Securitas issued a statement that Adan had resigned in June of 2016 from his part-time security job with them and that he had been assigned to the St. Cloud company Electrolux Home Products. Adan was wearing a security guard’s uniform during the attack.
A spokesman for the family, Abdi Wahid Osman, read from a statement expressing condolences for the injured and anyone else who was impacted.
Dahir Adan was acknowledged by Yussuf as a promising man, who cherished family values and was deeply intelligent.
Falconer was shopping at the time of attack but St. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis said that Falconer identified himself as a police officer.
St. Cloud, a 67,000-person town about 65 miles northwest of Minneapolis, is one of Minnesota’s larger immigrant Muslim communities.
“It’s going to be tough times”.
“We don’t know if the suspect was in contact with or inspired by foreign terrorist organizations”, Thornton said.
Somalis, who’ve spent years in Fargo-Moorhead, are concerned the incident in St. Cloud will spark a backlash of fear and suspicion. At least 20 of them have left the country to join Islamic extremist group al-Shabab, which is centralized in Somalia; others have traveled to Syria to join the Islamic State. A 2011 agreement resolved the case, but the U.S. Department of Education still was monitoring the case past year.
Community members listen during a press conference at St. Cloud City Hall Monday, Sept. 19, 2016. This incident would be the first terrorist attack carried by a Somali on US soil, if, in fact, the stabbings are ultimately deemed an act of terrorism.
Ryan Schliep of Willmar says he initially saw the attacker with a girl on Saturday and thought they were playing around.
Jama Alimad, a Somali community advocate and friend of the family, told the Star Tribune that Adan was more into sports than religion, describing him as “the most assimilated kid in the neighborhood”. According to Anderson, most of the encounters were for minor traffic violations, none of which led to an arrest.
The family says he was now working as a security guard at Capital One in downtown St. Cloud and that he was enrolled as a student at St. Cloud State.
Mr Yusuf, who has spoken with Adan’s parents, said Adan went to the mall to pick up an iPhone.
Falconer was praised on Monday by his chief Corey Nellis, who said that his officer “was the person who needed to be there”.
Forliti reported from Minneapolis.
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This item has been corrected to show that the Electrolux facility is not in the Crossroads Center mall at St. Cloud.
