Authorities have released little information about Adan but say they are investigating the attacks as a potential act of terrorism.
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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. “I want to know everything about this man, from the day he was born until last Saturday”, Anderson said.
One of the victims of the Minnesota mall stabbings has said the man who carried out the attack showed no emotion and his eyes looked blank.
None of the 10 people wounded suffered life-threatening injuries.
At a news conference Sunday, FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Rick Thornton said the attack was being investigated as an act of terrorism and that agents were still digging into the attacker’s background and possible motives. It wasn’t clear whether the attacker was radicalized.
Earlier on Saturday, a bomb exploded at a charity race in New Jersey.
The incident caught the attention of leaders statewide and prompted Gov. Mark Dayton to schedule a trip to St. Cloud on Monday.
The Somali community has condemned the attack.
His soccer coach told the Star-Tribune that two nights before the attack, Adan had called to ask for weight-loss advice.
Activists in the region’s large Somali community condemned the stabbing and said it was not reflective the attitudes of Muslims or Somalis in the area, the St. Cloud Times reported.
The majority of the Somali community is Muslim. Before that, dozens of male Minnesota residents had left to join Al-Shabaab, a terrorist group working to turn Somalia into an Islamist state. Since 2014, nine Somali-Americans from that state were either convicted at trial or pleaded guilty in a plot to join ISIS by traveling to Syria. The possibility of an attack on USA soil has been a major concern for law enforcement. Stopping the recruiting has been a high priority, with law enforcement investing countless hours in community outreach and the state participating in a federal project created to combat radical messages. The assault would be the first time a Somali person attacks US citizens on American soil. ISIS claimed that the Minnesota attacker was “a soldier of the Islamic State”, according to Rasd, a news agency operated by ISIS, although it is still unclear how the group may be linked to the stabbings. IS has encouraged so-called “lone wolf” attacks.
Ahmed says Dahir was born in Somalia and lived in the USA the last 15 years.
Alimad, who is also a friend of the family, is one of the community elders who has visited the family of the 22-year-old suspect Dahir Adan.
Haji Yusuf, who is part of UniteCloud, a local group founded to tackle racial and ethnic tension in the city, said he spoke with Adan’s parents and was told Adan went to the mall to pick up an iPhone. He had “no suspicion” that he was involved in any terrorist activity, he added. Securitas, a security company that does not provide security to the mall, said in a statement Adan was a former part-time employee who resigned in June.
Police had had three previous encounters with the attacker, mostly for minor traffic violations, Anderson said.
Ismail Ali, a student at St. Cloud State University where Adan attended college, said the city was at a crossroads.
“But as we talk today, I don’t have anything to make that connection”, the police chief said. The victims included seven men, one woman and a 15-year-old girl.
– Off-duty police officer Jason Falconer was the right person, in the right place, at the right time.
KDLT News reached out to The Empire Mall Monday to speak about safety and security. When the stabbings started, occurring in several locations including some stores, Bayne ran out to the parking lot and took off in her auto, crying and shaking in the aftermath of an event she never thought would happen at the mall.
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“No one is talking right now”, one man said from his doorway. Another man suggested Adan had been provoked into a mall fight.
