ISIS Claims Responsibility Minnesota Mall Attack

ISIS Claims Responsibility Minnesota Mall Attack

  • Sep 19, 2016

The man who stabbed nine people at a Minnesota mall before an off-duty police officer fatally shot him has been identified as Dehir A. Adan, a 22-year-old male.

Police and witnesses said the attacker was wearing a private security company uniform when he entered Crossroads Mall on Saturday night around 8 p.m. local time. Witnesses say he made a reference to Allah before he asked someone if they were Muslim before he started his attack. Adan stabbed nine people before the attack was over.

Though security teams were on site, they were not armed. Jason Falconer, an off-duty police officer, killed the suspect as he threatened other shoppers.

Authorities have said that Adan had three previous encounters with police, most were minor traffic violations, none of which led to an arrest. The police chief declined to provide further details about the attacker until more information is known.

Officials said that surveillance footage from an inside store caught the incident and revealed details of the confrontation before Falconer and Adan.

"His heroic actions are exemplary of having witnessed what he did as the suspect was lunging at him with a knife," St. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis said. "Not only did he fire, the suspect went down, came back up on three different occasions. He protected others from being injured and potentially loss of life. Clearly, a hero."

The Amaq News Agency posted a statement online, the latest in a series of ISIS-related media outlets claiming responsibility for purported attacks carried out by individuals across Europe and beyond. Security Today was unable to confirm the claim and St. Cloud Police Chief William Blair Anderson said he couldn’t confirm the mall stabbings were anything other than a lone wolf attack.

The FBI is calling the attack "a potential act of terrorism."

Adan went to college in St. Cloud and worked for a private security firm at the time of the attack, community leaders said. He had been acting strangely before the attack, they said.

The mall has been reopened as of Monday, Sept. 19.

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