One person is dead and several are injured following a stabbing Saturday at a mall in St. Cloud, Minnesota.
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Witnesses said the man entered Crossroads Mall on Saturday night, made a reference to Allah and asked at least one person if they were Muslims before he attacked, police said in a statement.
St. Cloud Hospital spokesman Chris Nelson told the Times that eight patients were brought to the hospital; seven had injuries that were not life-threatening; and one was admitted. We don’t know whether the subject was in contact with, had connections with, was inspired by a foreign terrorist investigation.
Ahmed Adan told the Star Tribune of Minneapolis that police told him Saturday night that his son, Dahir A. Adan, died at Crossroads Center mall in St. Cloud.The Saint Cloud Times is reporting Dahir Adan, a member of the local Somali Community, was the man who attacked nine people at a local mall Saturday while shouting about “Allah”.
FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Rick Thornton said the attack was being investigated as a possible act of terrorism, but that agents were still digging into the attacker’s background and possible motives.
The off-duty police officer who shot the suspect was from a jurisdiction outside of St. Cloud, Anderson said. She says she saw a man who looked like a security guard sprint down a hallway, and then two men stumbled out. One guy was bleeding from the side of his face. Once again, we saw the bravery of our first responders who run toward danger to help others.
St. Cloud Police Chief William Anderson said police had had three previous encounters with the man, mostly for minor traffic violations. KARE 11 said people with blood on them were seen walking through the mall.
Weires says she and her friends ran out of the mall.
Anderson said he is not ready to call the attack terrorism related until more details can be hammered out.
She added that “ISIS often claims responsibility for attacks after the fact and it is not immediately clear whether they planned this attack or had advance knowledge of it”. “There is no place in Minnesota for intolerance of all Americans’ constitutional right to worship according to their beliefs”.
The knife attack in St. Cloud, a community about 60 miles northwest of Minneapolis-St.
A St. Cloud police officer told AFP on Sunday that the department was actively investigating the attack, but had no further information for public release and had no immediate plans for further news briefings.
Hours after the incident, groups of shoppers huddled inside the mall’s food court.
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton said she was briefed on the stabbing, as well as on the explosions in NY and New Jersey, according to CBS affiliate WCCO.
The couple were unharmed and said they helped another woman who was running from the scene to her auto.
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Along with being president and owner of Tactical Advantage and Tactical Advantage Firearms Training, the 43-year-old Falconer’s professional bio notes that he has assisted St. Cloud State University with law enforcement training “in the disciplines of decision shooting and dynamic entry” in realistic situations. Weires said they got to the mall at about 8:10 p.m. and started shopping in stores near J.C. Penney.
