Meanwhile, leaders of organizations that focus on Islamic relations, including the Minnesota chapter of CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) and the Rochester-based organization CIDI (Community Interfaith Dialogue on Islam) have concerns about potential backlash against Somali-Americans. Other officers were searching shrubbery near the mall with flashlights, according to St. Cloud Times staffers on the scene. Likewise, St. Cloud Police Chief William Blair Anderson told CNN Sunday he was unable to confirm if the mall stabbings were anything more than a lone attack.
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The man who was fatally shot by an off-duty officer after stabbing nine people at a Minnesota mall this weekend had worked as a security guard for a store near the mall.
The younger Adan graduated with honors from a local high school and was attending a nearby university, said local Abdul Kulane. He had nothing more than a minor traffic citation on his record.
Ryan Schliep, one of 10 people wounded before the attacker was shot dead by an off-duty police officer, told WCCO-TV that the man “just walked right at me” before striking quickly and penetrating the skin of his scalp.
Police executed search warrants for two apartments, including the one where Adan lived with his father, Anderson said. “What was his motivation?”
“The executor of the stabbing attacks in Minnesota yesterday was a soldier of the Islamic State and carried out the operation in response to the citizens of countries belonging to the crusader coalition”, allegedly said ISIS in the statement.
According to authorities, the assailant wore a security guard’s uniform and mentioned Allah, asking at least one of his victims if the person was Muslim before continuing his attack. Ahmed Adan said his son was born in Kenya but was Somali and had lived in the USA for 15 years.
“He was an A student”.
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.
Dahir A. Adan, 22, is said to be a Somalian “soldier of the Islamic State” who emigrated from Africa to the U.S. with his family 15 years ago.
“We can either choose to let hate win and be divided as a community, or we can choose to come together and love one another and move on”, he said.
Anderson said the attacker began stabbing people right after entering the mall. All of them – eight men, a woman and a 15-year-old girl – have all been released after receiving medical treatment.
Anderson also said the attack appeared to be the work of one person and there was no sign the attacker was radicalized or communicated with any terrorist group.
FBI Special Agent in Charge Rick Thornton said the attack is being investigated as a “potential act of terrorism”.
“We can not give ISIS and other terrorist organizations more air time and propaganda without real facts”, said Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Minnesota chapter. “There was a bunch of people running into the JCPenney mall entrance, and they were just screaming that someone was going around the mall stabbing people, and that there was blood everywhere”.
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.
“It’s going to be tough times”.
Adde said Adan’s father is an upbeat guy who served on the board of a Somali community group while living in Fargo.
Forliti reported from Minneapolis.
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Stallman said the St. Cloud attack was a near-miss for the Fargo area, and he criticized the federal government and Lutheran Social Services of North Dakota (LSSND), the group contracted to resettle refugees in the state, for continuing “to dump potentially violent refugees on an unsuspecting public”.
