People stand near the entrance on the north side of Crossroads Center mall between Macy’s and Target as officials investigate a reported multiple stabbing incident on September 17, 2016, in St. Cloud, Minn.
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(St. Cloud Times/Jason Wachter via AP).
Jama Alimad, 65, a prominent figure in St. Cloud’s sizeable Somali community, described Adan as a, “typical American kid, outgoing, nice”.
The knife attack that injured nine at a shopping mall in St. Cloud, Minnesota on Saturday evening is likely the work of a “lone attacker”, officials said today. “But as we talk today, I don’t have anything to make that connection”, the police chief said.
“He looked just blank in the eyes like he wasn’t even there”, Schliep said shortly before being released from a St. Cloud hospital. U.S. President Barack Obama told reporters at a news conference the FBI was investigating the attack as a “potential act of terrorism”. That was before the Islamic State began urging “lone wolf” attacks in countries that are part of a US -led coalition against their group.
At least one of the victims was asked by the suspect if he was Muslim, said St. Cloud Police Chief Blair Anderson. But to the local Somali community, it’s “unclear” what Adan’s motivations were. The FBI said it was investigating the attack “as a potential act of terrorism”, but officials in Minnesota said they had found no direct links.
Local and federal officers were spotted late Sunday morning outside an apartment building, where the suspect was believed to have lived. Spring 2016 was his last semester.
Adan had also worked as a security guard on a part-time basis. “We express our deepest sympathy and condolences to all those injured”, it read.
He said his son was born in Kenya but grew up in the United States.
A pipe bomb also exploded in a New Jersey beach town on Saturday along the route of a charity race to benefit military veterans but no injuries were reported in what investigators also were treating as a possible act of terrorism.
Minnesota is home to America’s largest Somali population with at least 40,000.
Leaders of the Somali-American community in St. Cloud gathered Sunday with Adan’s family and issued a statement of sympathy for his family and the nine victims of the attack. At first I didn’t know what to think.
“It’s going to be tough times”. “He was helpful to his family and as far as we know, he never had a violent history, as far as his family and the community can remember”.
The community has been a target for terror recruiters in recent years. 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. A 2011 agreement resolved the case, but the U.S. Department of Education still was monitoring the case past year. Yet, Anderson declined to characterize the stabbings as a terrorist attack, declaring that the motive isn’t known.
Electrolux Home Products’ spokeswoman Eloise Hale said Monday that the man was an employee of the security firm Securitas and was assigned for a few months to an Electrolux facility.
His father, Ahmed Adan, told the Minnesota Star Tribune that he had “no suspicion” of his son being involved in any terrorist activity.
He’s considered an expert in firearms training and education and has helped teach classes on law enforcement skills at St. Cloud State University for nine years, his company website says. Ronald Bennett says he’s suddenly much more aware of who else may be at the mall.
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.
Anderson said the man began attacking people right after entering the mall, stabbing people in several spots inside.
Adan was not employed by Securitas at the time of the incident and Securitas does not provided security services at the Crossroads Center Mall.
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Forliti reported from Minneapolis.
