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 Depar. The FBI is investigating the stabbings as a potential terrorist act. He says Adan’s family doesn’t know what happened.
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The man was employed by the security firm Securitas and had worked a temporary assignment that ended in June as a guard at the Electrolux Home Products store in the mall, Eletrolux spokeswoman Eloise Hale said.
ISIS has claimed responsibility for four attacks in the USA since 2015, adding to Adan’s case the Orlando nightclub, Garland, and San Bernardino shootings.
The growth in the Somali refugee population in St. Cloud has escalated tensions, particularly in the school system.
Saturday’s stabbing has left local Somalis 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, reportedly asking some victims whether they were Muslim before stabbing them.
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.
Federal investigators say they’re looking at the attack as a potential act of terrorism after the Islamic State claimed the suspect had heeded its calls for attacks in countries that are part of a USA -led anti-Islamic State coalition.
Authorities have released little information about Adan but say they are investigating the attacks as a potential act of terrorism.
Amaq news agency said he “carried out the operation in response to calls to target the citizens of countries belonging to the crusader coalition”.
An off duty police officer from another city who just happened to be at Macy’s shot the man, preventing many further injuries, police said. “People were emotional. They were crying”, a witness said.
Less than 24 hours after the Saturday knife attack at the Crossroads Center mall that injured 10 and left the assailant dead, there were reports of motorcyclists and drivers in pickup trucks going through Somali neighborhoods in St. Cloud, waving large Confederate and USA flags.
St. Cloud police say that while they were reviewing security footage as part of their investigation into Saturday’s stabbing at Crossroads Center mall, they found another man had been hurt.
President Obama said that he was being briefed on the Minnesota investigation, and that there was no sign of a link to explosions in and around New York City on Saturday.
Harley and Tama Exsted of Isle, who were in St. Cloud Saturday to watch their son play in a college golf tournament at Blackberry Ridge, were in the mall when the incident occurred.
“Falconer, who was shopping when he confronted the attacker, is the former police chief in Albany, which is about 15 miles northwest of St. Cloud, and the president and owner of a firing range and firearms training facility, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Therefore, we urge citizens of St. Cloud and of this State to stay united and let the law enforcement agencies gather the facts and do their job”, Adan’s family said in a statement. Police have not identified the suspect.
Amid the chaos, Jason Falconer, an off-duty police officer from nearby Avon, killed the suspect as he threatened other shoppers.
The mall was expected to reopen Monday after being closed Sunday.
“All of sudden chaos just broke out”, she told CNN’s Nick Valencia on Sunday. “Clearly he made a decision, and if not for him being there clearly this would be much worse than it was”, St. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis told reporters.
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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.
