It was a very different scene from just three days ago when a 20-year-old man went walking and running through the mall stabbing 10 people.
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On Monday night, the family released their first statement since Adan’s rampage, saying that they were in “deep shock as everyone else is in the state of Minnesota”.
“It’s hard for a community, but it’s also important that the community gathers together and is strengthed by that”, says Kleis. “There is a lot we don’t know”, said Rick Thornton, FBI special agent.
Adnan Alasker, who was in town from Saudi Arabia to visit his son at St. Cloud State University, said he feels badly about the violence. He was wearing his uniform when he started the assault. At their ethnically diverse high school, bullies would sometimes torment some of the Somali students, Omar said, though he added he didn’t know if Adan was ever targeted.
Mr Yusuf, who has spoken with Adan’s parents, said Adan went to the mall to pick up an iPhone. “We understand in St. Cloud there is more anti-Muslim organizing, and we hope that they will not use this instance as a way to continue to polarize, divide, and spread fear in our communities”, declared Hussein.
The speed with which IS weighed in may also say something about a competition for recruits between the Middle East-based IS and the east Africa-based militant group al-Shabab, which has recruited Somali-Americans from Minnesota with some success in recent years.
St. Cloud, a city of 67,000 about 65 miles northwest of Minneapolis, is home to one of Minnesota’s larger immigrant Muslim communities, and the incident has rattled people there.
St. Cloud Police say a suspect stabbed 9 people throughout the mall before an off-duty officer confronted him in Macy’s and shot and killed him.
“We are worshiping one God, we are practicing faith from one source”, Mahamoud Mohamed, executive director of the St. Cloud Area Somali Salvation Association, said.
On Monday evening, authorities identified a 10th victim of the attack who they said did not notify police or seek out medical attention for his injuries.
One of the nine people wounded in a stabbing at a central Minnesota mall says the man who carried out the attack showed no emotion and his eyes looked blank.
The chairman of the U.S. Senate’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee is seeking more information on two men accused in potential acts of terror.
St. Cloud, Minn., Police Chief William Blair Anderson and other officials hold a press conference Sunday, Sept. 18, 2016, giving updated information on the Crossroads Center incident at the St. Cloud Police Department. The officer, Jason Falconer, is being hailed as a hero.
“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.
ISIS-related media on Sunday morning claimed responsibility for the attack.
Kleis said it’s been a trying time for the city and said he has tremendous respect for the off-duty officer who shot and killed the attacker.
“If I was going to ask anybody to fire live rounds in a crowded mall, I would trust his abilities next to anybody’s”, Nellis said.
ABC7 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.
President Barack Obama said the stabbings had no apparent connection to the weekend bombings in NY and New Jersey.
St. Cloud’s police chief has said it seems Adan acted alone.
Twenty per cent of students in St. Cloud’s school district are from a home where the primary language is Somali, according to the St. Cloud Times.
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Hersi said she hoped the tragedy would bring St. Cloud residents together, rather than divide them further.
