From the HERE City National Desk
Federal agents in Minnesota say they stopped an 18-year-old who planned a mass shooting at the Mall of America in support of the Islamic State group, arresting him after an undercover FBI employee sold him a rifle.
Sheikhdoon Abdullahi Mohamud was arrested Tuesday in a public park in Richfield, several miles northwest of the mall, after paying $600 for an AK-47 and 200 rounds of ammunition, according to the criminal complaint. He believed the seller was a member of ISIS.
Prosecutors say Mohamud traded messages with a confidential informant for nearly two years. In those messages, according to the complaint, he repeatedly said he intended to kill non-Muslims at the mall on Oct. 24, the date of a scheduled Hmong arts celebration. U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen said agents detected and disrupted the threat before the teen could carry out his stated aim of killing 30 to 60 people.
The complaint says Mohamud first came to the FBI’s attention in December 2024. He told the informant he wanted to travel to Somalia to join ISIS but could not afford it and decided to attack the mall instead. Rosen said Mohamud is an American-born U.S. citizen.
Mohamud made his first appearance Wednesday in federal court in St. Paul and is charged with purchasing a firearm to commit a crime of terrorism in support of a designated foreign terrorist organization. He remains in custody and is scheduled to appear before a judge again Oct. 19.
