The Somali community in the USA state of Minnesota braced for a backlash Monday after a man who stabbed 10 people in a mall over the weekend was identified as one of their own. Seven were men, one was a 50-year-old woman and one was a 15-year-old girl.
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“Thanks to the quick action of a courageous off-duty police officer, the suspect was killed and we avoided more people being hurt”, Obama said of the officer, who works for the police department in nearby Avon, Minnesota.
According to authorities, the assailant wore a security guard’s uniform and mentioned Allah, asking at least one of his victims if the person was Muslim before continuing his attack.
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.
A spokesman for St. Cloud State University said Adan had pursued a degree in information systems and was enrolled in the college in 2014, but withdrew in the spring of 2016. None ended in an arrest. The suspect has since been identified as 20-year-old Dahir Ahmed Adan.
His father, Ahmed Aden, said Sunday through a translator, that the last time he talked to his son was about 6 p.m. Saturday when he left for the mall to reportedly buy a cellphone. Ahmed Adan said his son was born in Kenya but was Somali and had lived in the USA for 15 years. Federal law enforcement sources also confirmed Adan’s name to CNN.
Earlier in the day, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and St. Cloud Police searched two separate apartment units in the same building less than two miles from the mall.
During the press conference held by members of the Somali and Muslim community on Sunday, Hussein reminded people that the Somali Muslim community in the region has been targeted by a rise in anti-Muslim sentiment and emphasized that the stabbing incident was isolated. All have been released from St. Cloud Hospital, spokeswoman Chris Nelson said Monday.
In the past decade, Minnesota has struggled with terrorist groups luring some of its young Somali men overseas.
Amid the chaos, Jason Falconer, an off-duty police officer from nearby Avon, killed the suspect as he threatened other shoppers.
A person who answered the phone at the T-Mobile store where Yusuf said Adan had ordered the phone declined to comment or take a message for his supervisor.
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.
The Islamic State also claimed responsibility, though it wasn’t immediately clear if the extremist group had planned the attack or even knew about it beforehand.
Mayor Dave Kleis has seen the security footage that he says shows Adan’s final moments.
The Crossroads Mall reopened at 10 a.m. Monday. Sydney Weires, 18, and two of her friends were shopping when the stabbings happened. “No one is talking right now”, one man said from the doorway of his apartment. They also impounded the assailant’s vehicle from the mall parking lot.
But at a news conference Sunday afternoon, the mayor and police chief praised Falconer, a part-time officer and a former police chief of Albany, Minnesota, for stepping into action.
While authorities have not yet identified the stabber, they say he had three previous encounters with police.
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“We will be diligent and get to the bottom of this”, Anderson said, adding that police had prior contact with the suspect, but only related to traffic stops.
