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.
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Jason Falconer is being hailed by authorities, Gov. Mark Dayton and others for stopping a man suspected of carrying out the attack Saturday night in a St. Cloud mall.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – 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 USA -led anti-Islamic State coalition.
A Minnesota police chief says the part-time officer who fatally shot a man stabbing people at a St. Cloud mall was “the right person, at the right place, at the right time” to prevent the attack from getting worse.
In St. Cloud, the attacker entered the mall in the evening as it was busy with shoppers, Anderson said.
“Whether that was a terrorist attack or not, I’m not willing to say that right now because we just don’t know”, he said.
An Islamic State-run news agency, Rasd, claimed Sunday 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 US -led anti-IS coalition.
Richard Thornton, FBI special agent in Minneapolis, said at the same news conference that the attacks are were being investigated as a “potential” act of terrorism, but the suspect’s motive remains unknown. It has also claimed past attacks that are not believed to have been planned by its central leadership. Ahmed Adan said his son was born in Kenya but was Somali and had lived in the US for 15 years. His profile says he focuses on firearms and permit-to-carry training, and also teaches “decision shooting” to law enforcement students at St. Cloud State University. Spokesman Adam Hammer said Adan’s intended major was information systems, which is a computer-related field.
Jaylani Hussein, executive director in Minnesota of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said Sunday that “we are definitely concerned about the potential for backlash in the community, both in the immediate run and the longer term”.
He said authorities have no reason to believe anyone else was involved in the attack.
He said Adan was wearing a security guard uniform and told people he was a police officer before the attack began.
The off duty officer who shot the suspect is Jason Falconer of Avon, Minnesota.
Anderson didn’t identify the attacker, but he said police had had three previous encounters with him, mostly for minor traffic violations.
St. Cloud Hospital spokeswoman Chris Nelson said Sunday that the other five people were released and that none of the three still at the hospital has injuries that are considered life-threatening. The mall was placed on lock-down for a period of time.
Police have said the knifeman “made references to Allah” during his rampage and asked victims whether they were Muslim before attacking.
Speaking in the aftermath of the attack he added: “What we know it is a lone suspect who attacked eight people”.
Minnesota has had a disturbing number of Somali migrants inflicted on it and so it’s not too surprising that the terrorist turned out to be a Somali out of Kenya. But community activists say the population – most of it in the Minneapolis area – is much higher.
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Target employees huddled in the mens’ clothing department, Bellow said his brother had communicated by text message.
