According to police, five minutes elapsed between the time of the first 911 call and the suspect’s death. Saturday night as a possible act of terrorism. “This happens three times, and the suspect was still attempting to get back up again when [the officer] fires the fatal shot”, the mayor told reporters Sunday afternoon.
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No one answered the door late Sunday at a home address listed for Falconer, and a voicemail box for a telephone listing was full and not accepting new messages.
The man in the security guard uniform strode into the Minnesota mall just after 8pm local time somewhere near Sears.
Leaders of the local Somali-American community issued a statement of sympathy for the family and the victims of the attack, the St. Cloud Times reported. She later called and said she was safe in a secured area. While the police confirmed that they believe the suspect is dead, though they are following other leads on potential accomplices, they have not indicated the condition of those injured.
All nine victims suffered injuries that were not life-threatening. The St. Cloud Times reported the suspect has been named as Dahir Adan.
Crossroads Center will remain closed on Sunday and is expected to reopen Monday.
“The entire mall is an active crime scene”, Anderson said. Authorities have given no indication that the attacks were connected. Speaking to the newspaper through an interpreter, Ahmed Adan, whose family is Somali, said his son was born in Africa and had lived in the USA for 15 years. He said that he had “no suspicion” of his son being involved in any terrorist activity.
The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
At a news conference Sunday, FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Rick Thornton said the attack was being investigated as a possible act of terrorism and that agents were still digging into the attacker’s background and possible motives. He was a junior at St. Cloud State University and was a part-time private security officer. They identified him as Officer Jason Falconer. The others were treated and released.
Officials said the man has had interactions with police in the past, including recently, but the source could not yet characterize the nature of those interactions.
The couple were unharmed and said they helped another woman who was running from the scene to her auto.
“One guy had blood dripping down his face”, she said.
Authorities don’t believe the knife-wielding man was a mall employee but declined to comment on whether the incident was an act of worldwide terrorism.
Weires says she and her friends ran out of the mall. The off-duty Avon, Minn., officer who was shopping at the mall and shot and killed the suspect is being hailed as a hero.
A Minnesota hospital official says three of the eight people who were attacked at a mall remain hospitalized. Anderson said Falconer fired as the attacker was lunging at him with the knife, and continued to engage him as the attacker got up three times.
Falconer, who was off-duty and happened to be at the mall Saturday night, is also a former chief of police in Albany, Minnesota.
The IS-run Rasd news agency reported the claim on Sunday, saying the attacker had heeded calls from the extremist group for attacks in countries that are part of a USA -led anti-IS coalition.
It was not immediately clear whether the attacker, whom the police have not identified, had any direct ties to the Islamic State, or whether he acted on his own. IS has encouraged so-called “lone wolf” attacks.
Early reports had said that eight people were stabbed. One person was admitted. No further details of their conditions were released.
Around 8:15 p.m., a man wearing a private security uniform and wielding a knife walked into the Crossroads Center mall near Sears and started stabbing people, according to St. Cloud police.
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About 25,000 Somalis live in Minnesota, and the Minneapolis/St. Paul area – some 70 miles (110 kilometers) to the southeast of St. Cloud – has the country’s largest concentration of Somalis.
