Abdulwahid Osman, the lawyer for the family of Dahir Ahmed Adan, speaks during a news conference at St. Cloud City Hall in St. Cloud, Minn., Monday, Sept. 19, 2016.
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On Monday night, the family released their first statement since Adan’s rampage, saying that they were in “deep shock as everyone else is in the state of Minnesota”.
The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force is now leading the investigation into the mass stabbing Saturday at a St. Cloud mall.
The Star Tribune in Minneapolis reported that Mr. Adan lived with his father in an apartment in St. Cloud. “The family said he was happy, joyful, worked full time, did well in high school”.
A unity gathering was held at St. Cloud State University Tuesday evening with college and community leaders speaking, a solidarity walk, and small group discussions.
An Islamic State-run news agency claimed Adan was a “soldier of the Islamic State”.
“We would like to say loud that our community in central Minnesota has no relationship with ISIS or any other Islamic terrorist group”. The FBI has called the attack “a potential act of terrorism”.
St. Cloud police had three previous interactions with Adan for minor incidents like traffic violations, according to Anderson.
“We’re going to keep an eye out, there are dim-witted, ignorant, myopic people in this world and that’s unfortunate, but we’re not going to let them target our citizens'” says Anderson.
Authorities say 20-year-old Dahir Adan wounded 10 people before an off-duty police officer fatally shot him.
Mr. Alimad said Mr. Adan had immigrated to the United States as a toddler and grew up in St. Cloud.
Minnesota has the largest Somali community of anywhere in the nation. But bullies sometimes pick on the Somali students. Many of them are young Somali-American men.
On Sunday night, roughly 24 hours after Adan’s rampage, a truck flying a Confederate flag and several motorcycles drove laps through some of St Cloud’s predominantly Somali neighborhoods, revving their engines in a manner that was meant to intimidate, said Jaylani Hussein, the Minnesota director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim advocacy group.
State and city leaders urged residents to not act divisively. But he had not enrolled for the fall.
Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson is asking the Department of Homeland Security to provide information about Dahir Ahmed Adan, who was killed after he stabbed or cut 10 people at a Minnesota mall, and Ahmad Khan Rahami, who is accused of leaving bombs in NY and New Jersey.
Adan’s Facebook profile, which was taken down Monday, had only two photos available to the public.
But law enforcement officials were unsure whether Mr. Adan had made contact with any terror organization, or had “self-radicalized”, heeding the online calls to radical jihad that terrorist groups have used to goad Westerners into mounting attacks at home.
The sounds of residents’ conversations leaked through thin walls and into the building’s hallways on Monday, but no one wanted to talk about Adan or what happened.
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“To me, in watching it, it looks like a training video for law enforcement – what law enforcement should do”.
