Falconer shot Adan dead, and authorities believe his quick action saved lives.
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Authorities are treating Saturday’s stabbings at Crossroads Center Mall as a possible act of terrorism, in part because an Islamic State-run news agency claimed that the attacker was a “soldier of the Islamic State” who had heeded the group’s calls for attacks in countries that are part of a USA -led anti-IS coalition. He also worked for a private security company, according to CNN. The 2016 New Jersey bombing occurred on the same day.
Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson is asking the Department of Homeland Security to provide information about Dahir Ahmed Adan, who was killed after he stabbed or cut 10 people at a Minnesota mall, and Ahmad Khan Rahami, who is accused of leaving bombs in NY and New Jersey.
Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton listens during a press conference with St. Cloud Mayor David Kleis, left, at St. Cloud City Hall, Monday, Sept. 19, 2016.
Police do know from witnesses, that the suspect made references to Allah during the attack and asked at least one person whether or not they were Muslim.
Police have identified a 10th victim in the weekend stabbing at a central Minnesota mall.
Adan was employed by the security firm Securitas, and was assigned for a few months to an Electrolux factory near the mall, Electrolux spokeswoman Eloise Hale said.
Minnesota has the largest Somali community of anywhere in the nation.
In the past decade, Minnesota has struggled with terrorist groups luring some of its young Somali men overseas.
Members of the Somali-American and Muslim community expressed thanks for the solidarity they received from those of other faiths.
“Nine Somali-Minnesotans were convicted at trial or pleaded guilty in a plot to travel to Syria to join ISIS”, notes CNN”.
“To me, in watching it, it looks like a training video for law enforcement – what law enforcement should do”.
Stopping recruiting has been a high priority, with law enforcement investing countless hours in community outreach and the state participating in a federal project created to combat radical messages. If Saturday’s stabbings are ultimately deemed a terrorist act, it would be the first carried out by a Somali on USA soil, said Karen Greenburg, director of the Center on National Security at Fordham University School of Law. “Well with what happened last night is what keeps me up at night”, said St. Cloud mayor Dave Kleis.
The Islamic State has claimed Adan as a “soldier”, but St. Cloud authorities said during a news conference on Monday that investigators have not found anything to link him to the militant group.
It was not immediately clear if the extremist group had planned Saturday’s attack or knew about it beforehand.
His father Ahmed, speaking through an interpreter, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that he was 22, but court records and a driving licence database showed his age as 20.
Somalis in a central Minnesota city are trying to square the bright, family-minded young man who went to the mall to buy the new iPhone with the emotionless man who stabbed 10 people and in death is the subject of a terrorism investigation. One student had said Somali-Americans were called Islamic State members and had their headscarves pulled off, and a photo posted on social media of a Somali-American student who was using a wheelchair after breaking her leg with a caption that said she was “disabled in ISIS”.
Avon Police Chief Corey Nellis said Monday that Falconer owns a firing range and is the city’s firearms instructor.
Police had had three previous encounters with the attacker, mostly for minor traffic violations, Anderson said.
Hammer said Adan´s last semester at the college was in the Spring of this year, and he had not registered for the Fall semester.
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Five years earlier, CAIR’s Minnesota chapter asked for a federal civil rights investigation into allegations that Muslim students had been harassed at two St. Cloud high schools. The victims included eight men, one woman and a 15-year-old girl.
