But on Saturday, for reasons still unclear, authorities say Dahir Adan put on a security guard uniform and went into a Minnesota mall armed with a kitchen knife.
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It appears that Adan carried out the attack alone, St. Cloud Police Chief Blair Anderson said Monday.
Authorities are treating Saturday’s stabbings at Crossroads Center Mall as a possible act of terrorism, in part because an Islamic State-run news agency claimed that the attacker was a “soldier of the Islamic State” who had heeded the group’s calls for attacks in countries that are part of a US -led anti-IS coalition.
Adan’s family said they were “devastated by the incomprehensible tragic event” and in “deep shock” a spokesman for his relatives told NBC station KARE.
The Islamic State has claimed Adan as a “soldier”, but St. Cloud authorities said during a news conference on Monday that investigators have not found anything to link him to the militant group.
Jama Alimad, a Somali community advocate and friend of the family, told the Star Tribune that Adan was more into sports than religion, describing him as “the most assimilated kid in the neighborhood”.
Federal investigators say they’re looking at the attack as a potential act of terrorism.
This incident would be the first terrorist attack carried by a Somali on US soil, if, in fact, the stabbings are ultimately deemed an act of terrorism.
President Barack Obama says there is no apparent connection between the stabbings at a mall in Minnesota and the bombings in NY and New Jersey.
People stand near the entrance on the north side of Crossroads Center mall between Macy’s and Target as officials investigate a reported multiple stabbing incident on September 17, 2016, in St. Cloud, Minn. He graduated from Apollo High School in 2014, where he was a skilled athlete in basketball and soccer, said Khader Omar, one of Adan’s Apollo High classmates, who is also Somali.
The attack ended when the suspect, who was identified by his father as Dahir Adan, was shot and killed by an off-duty police officer. At their ethnically diverse high school, bullies would sometimes torment some of the Somali students, Omar said, though he added he didn’t know if Adan was ever targeted.
Police say 10 people were stabbed in the attack at a Minnesota shopping mall Saturday night.
Both men say already the community is coming together after the attack with messages of thanks and concern coming from around the world.
Abdinasir Ibrahim said he grew up with Adan and remembered him as “very intelligent and smart”.
Because Adan was Somali, leaders of the state’s large Somali community acknowledged the prospect of a “long winter” for its people after the stabbings, but warned not to quickly accept the terrorism connection.
Terrorism experts say they’re eager to precisely because they apparently haven’t carried out carefully planned attacks here and because in terrorism circles, your influence is often ranked by numbers of attacks.
“We are also concerned about the potential backlash uh to this community”, Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, told the press conference. Another man suggested Adan had been provoked into a mall fight.
Some in Minnesota’s Somali community have long expressed suspicion of law enforcement and charge that Somali youth are stigmatized as terrorists, and baited by Federal Bureau of Investigation informants.
Adde said Adan’s father is an upbeat guy who served on the board of a Somali community group while living in Fargo.
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.
The Star Tribune pointed out that St. Cloud is home to a concentration of Minnesota’s large immigrant Muslim communities and tensions with some other members of the community has intensified at times.
St. Cloud’s mayor and police chief praised the swift actions of an off-duty, part-time Avon police officer for shooting and killing the attacker. The AP reported that Adan hadn’t been enrolled in college since the spring semester and had only one traffic ticket on his record.
Mall officials declined to comment Monday, referring questions to police.
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Avon Police Chief Corey Nellis said Monday that Falconer owns a firing range and is the city’s firearms instructor.
