No link has emerged between terrorist groups and the man who stabbed nine people in a St. Cloud mall Saturday night, September 17.
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St. Cloud Police Chief Blair Anderson said Monday the attack appeared to be the work of a single individual and there was no sign that the attacker, identified as 20-year-old Dahir Adan, was radicalized or communicated with any terrorist group. Adan was shot dead at the scene by an off-duty police officer. A news agency linked to the Islamic State terrorist group has claimed credit for the attack.
“We are also concerned about the potential backlash”, said Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations chapter in Minnesota.
“I am very thankful for Jason for his professionalism and being there – number one, for being there”, said the woman, who didn’t want to be identified.
The case is being investigated as a potential act of terrorism as the suspect, a uniformed security guard, referenced Allah and asked one person if they were Muslim during the attack.
“And yesterday was just a terrible day, not only for St. Cloud, but for the state of Minnesota and for our entire nation”.
Mr Anderson said Adan asked at least one of his victims if they were a Muslim before attacking.
It was not immediately clear if the extremist group had planned Saturday’s attack or knew about it beforehand.
Harley and Tama Exsted of Isle, who were in St. Cloud Saturday to watch their son play in a college golf tournament at Blackberry Ridge, were in the mall when the incident occurred. As Adan lunged at him with a knife, Falconer opened fire.
Yussuf says the family can’t understand what happened between the time he left and the time he stabbed nine people and was gunned down by an off duty officer inside the Macy’s store.
The Crossroads Mall was expected to reopen Monday.
Avon Police Chief Corey Nellis said Falconer was the “right person at the right place at the right time”, according to the AP.
Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton said in a statement Sunday, “I ask everyone in the St. Cloud area and throughout Minnesota to rise above this atrocity and act to make religious and racial tolerance one of the ways in which Minnesotans again lead our country”.
The attack is being investigated as “a potential act of terrorism”, Federal Bureau of Investigation agent Rick Thornton told reporters.
In more recent years, the Islamic State has also found recruits in Minnesota, with authorities saying roughly a dozen have left to join militants in Syria.
Falconer identified himself as a police officer, and the suspect got down, Kleis said.
According to Yussuf the family is going over the security video with authorities to try and determine what happened inside the mall right before the stabbing started. “There was a bunch of people running into the JCPenney mall entrance, and they were just screaming that someone was going around the mall stabbing people, and that there was blood everywhere”.
In a news conference Monday, President Barack Obama said there was no connection between the stabbing and the explosions in New York City and New Jersey this weekend. Authorities have declined to name the suspect because of the ongoing investigation.
Electrolux Home Products’ spokeswoman Eloise Hale said Monday that the man was an employee of the security firm Securitas and was assigned for a few months to an Electrolux facility.
“He was not now enrolled at St. Cloud”.
As of Sunday, three people were still in the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
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If the stabbings are ultimately deemed a terrorist act, it would be the first carried out by a Somali on US soil.
