Eight people were injured during a stabbing attack at a Minnesota shopping mall that ended with the suspected attacker – who was dressed in a private security uniform and made references to Allah – shot dead by an off-duty police officer, authorities said.
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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.
Paragraph after paragraph of quotes appear in the article about religion of peace, worries about backlash, members of the Somali community anxious that their families may have been victimized, before it actually gets to the attacks. “Yesterday was a frightful day for the entire nation”, he said.
“No, we don’t know anything about ISIS”. “It does not represent Islam, and it does not represent Somalis”.
Jason Falconer’s expertise as a firearms instructor and competitive shooter was just what was needed to stop a stabbing rampage Saturday night at a St. Cloud mall, his boss said Monday.
A Daesh-run news agency, Rasd, reported Sunday that the terror group was taking responsibility for the attack, calling the perpetrator its “soldier”.
CNN can not independently this latest claim.
“We haven’t uncovered anything that would suggest this was anything but a lone attacker at this point”, St. Cloud police chief William Blair Anderson said Monday.
“Whether that was a terrorist attack or not, I’m not willing to say that right now because we just don’t know”, Anderson said at a news conference.
Chief Anderson, meanwhile, said investigators have not connected Adan with ISIS or any other terrorist group. I ask everyone in the St. Cloud area and throughout Minnesota to rise above this atrocity and act to make religious and racial tolerance one of the ways in which Minnesotans again lead our country. He was at the St. Cloud mall and pulled his gun as Adan was coming at him with a knife.
Ahmed Said, executive director of the Somali American Relations Council, said it’s not certain religion motivated the attack.
“The news of the St. Cloud mall was shocking to the friends, relatives and community of the deceased”.
The apparent terrorist-who apparently asked victims if they were Muslims before stabbing them-was engaged by Falconer inside the mall.
“As we mourn the death of our son, Dahir Adan, who was very dear to us, we are in deep shock as everyone else is in the State of Minnesota”. Adan had already stabbed nine people and reportedly threatened other shoppers, asking some of the victims if they were Muslim or not before attacking.
Ashley Bayne, an employee of J.C. Penney at the mall, was visiting a coworker at the time of the incident.
“All of sudden chaos just broke out”, Bayne told CNN. “They were screaming, ‘Get out of the mall”.
Though mall’s security teams were on site, they were not armed. As of Sunday morning, six of the nine victims had been treated and released from a local hospital and all were expected to survive their injuries.
Falconer previously served as chief of police in the nearby city of Albany.
Ryan Schliep of Willmar says he initially saw the attacker with a girl and thought they were playing around. And he had nothing more than a minor traffic citation on his record. In describing the moment, Kleis said Adan had a knife in his hand when he lunged at Falconer.
The Crossroads Mall reopened at 10 a.m. Monday. Beyond that moment, though, Anderson said the attack will change the city forever.
Interfaith leaders have said there is some anger, fear and anxiety in the community following the incident, but together they will move forward.
The attack in St. Cloud, a city of about 65,000 people about 65 miles (104 km) from Minneapolis, began shortly after an explosion in a crowded New York City neighborhood injured 29 people. A second explosive device was found a few blocks away, authorities say. Hours before that, a pipe bomb exploded in Seaside Park, New Jersey, before a 5K race. “Well with what happened last night is what keeps me up at night”, said St. Cloud mayor Dave Kleis. Though the case may be closed soon, Anderson didn’t see things going back to normal.
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The growth in the Somali refugee population in St. Cloud has escalated tensions, particularly in the school system.
