(St. Cloud Times/Jason Wachter via AP). Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Center for American-Islamic Relations Minnesota, talks with reporters during a press conference Sunday, Sept. 18, 2016, at Lake George, in St. Cloud, Minn., expressing t.
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While a motive for Saturday night’s attack isn’t clear and it isn’t clear whether the attacker was radicalized, authorities in Minnesota have struggled for years to stem recruiting of young Somali men by the Islamic State and east Africa-based militant group al-Shabab. According to Anderson, most of the encounters were for minor traffic violations, none of which led to an arrest.
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.
Experts say that if Saturday’s stabbings are ultimately deemed a terrorist act, it would be the first carried out by a Somali on US soil.
Officers are trying to figure out if Aden worked at a private security firm as his uniform suggested, and if so, which one. Beyond that moment, though, Anderson said the attack will change the city forever.
The stabbings at a Minnesota mall, attributed to a young Somali man, are being treated by federal investigators 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 US -led anti-Islamic State coalition.
Speaking from New York on Monday, President Obama said investigators do not see a connection between the St. Cloud mall stabbings and the bombings in New York City and New Jersey.
Falconer was in the mall shopping, and happened to be in “right place at the right time”, St. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis said.
Both Anderson and Gov. Mark Dayton warned against a possible backlash due to the stabbings, especially in St. Cloud, where Somalis in the 65,000-resident city about 65 miles (104 km) northwest of Minneapolis have spoken about mistreatment in the past.
He told the newspaper that he did not suspect his son was involved in any terrorist activity, and said authorities informed him Saturday night that his son had died.
Amid the chaos, Jason Falconer, an off-duty police officer from nearby Avon, killed the suspect as he threatened other shoppers.
At least eight people were transported to the St. Cloud Hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
Avon Police Chief Corey Nellis said at a press conference Monday that he is “very proud of Officer Falconer’s heroic actions in confronting the perpetrator of the stabbing assaults of the Crossroads Mall Saturday”.
The man, whom his father has identified as 22-year-old Dahir Adan, was fatally shot by an off-duty officer at Crossroads Center mall. That was before the Islamic State began urging “lone wolf” attacks in countries that are part of a USA -led coalition against their group.
On Sunday, FBI agents, along with local police, served two search warrants at the apartment complex, Edjwood Estates, where Dahir lived with his parents.
A spokesman for St. Cloud State University confirmed that Adan was a student there, but that he hadn’t been enrolled since the spring semester. The victims included seven men, one woman and a 15-year-old girl. In a statement released Monday, Securitas said Adan resigned in June.
The Crossroads Mall is expected to reopen Monday.
“One was covered in blood down his face”, she said, and the other man had blood on his back.
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Mohamed stressed that the central Minnesota Muslim community has no relationship with ISIS “or any other Islamic terrorist group”.
