That came after the Islamic State militant group, through the Amaq News Agency, called the suspect “a soldier of the Islamic State”, adding he “carried out the attack in response to calls to target the citizens of countries belonging to the crusader coalition”.
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A man who stabbed nine people at a mall in central Minnesota before being shot dead is a “soldier of the Islamic State”, the militant group’s news agency said on Sunday, as the FBI investigated the attack as a potential act of terrorism. USA officials have not commented on the claim.
According to Anderson, the attacker referred to Allah and asked at least one victim if they were Muslim.
Police say he was “reportedly wearing a private security uniform” and began attacking shoppers at Crossroads Center just after 8 p.m., as Minnesota Public Radio’s Tim Nelson told our Newscast unit. But he emphasized that the assailant’s motivation remained unclear and said “whether that was a terrorist attack or not, I’m not willing to say that right now because we just don’t know”.
“While we will learn more about the facts surrounding this horrific attack today, one thing we know for certain this morning: Due to the courageous actions of an off-duty area police officer, the good work of first responders, and the reaction of those present at the mall, lives were saved”.
IS has encouraged so-called “lone wolf” attacks, but it has also claimed past attacks that are not believed to have been planned by its central leadership.
The knife-wielding man was fatally shot by an off-duty police officer during the Saturday night rampage, St. Cloud, Minn., police said.
Avon is in Stearns County and is about 15 miles northwest of St. Cloud. The FBI is now assisting St. Cloud Police in the investigation but Minnesota FBI spokesman Kyle Loven is refusing to comment further.
St. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis identified that officer as Jason Falconer during a press conference Sunday.
This story has been corrected to note that the suspect was a former student at St. Cloud State University, not a current student at St. Cloud Technical and Community College.
Thornton did not link the attack to a specific terrorist group.
Investigators are still trying to determine if the attack actually had any connection with ISIS. An off-duty police officer confronted the man during the attack and shot and killed him.
Bellow said his brother, whose shift was about a half-hour from ending when the violence broke out, sent him a text that said there was a shooter in the mall.
Kleis says there were nine people who were hurt in the attack, not eight, as authorities previously reported. A news agency with ties to the Islamic State group said the rampage was carried out by one of its “soldiers”.
None of the eight victims sustained life-threatening injuries, and all but one have been released from an area hospital.
Harley Exsted, another mall patron, told The St. Cloud Times, “All of a sudden I heard pop pop pop”. “I just thought someone tipped over a shelf”.
“I ran as much as I could and I heard someone yell ‘Stop!”
Law enforcement has yet to confirm the name of the suspect.
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The attack happened on the same night that an explosion happened in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City.
