Look: This Is the Man Behind the Minnesota Mall Knife Attack
A man in St. Cloud, Minnesota, caused extreme panic in a mall when he embarked on a stabbing rampage. During the attack, nine people between the ages of 15 and 53 were injured. None of the victims were killed.
While the attack occurred, an off-duty police officer by the name of Jason Falconer fatally shot the attacker. Although the police have not released the suspect’s identity, the father of the attacker has identified him at 22-year-old Dahir A. Adnan.
Although Adnan’s father doesn’t know of any terrorist ties his son has, a media organization that speaks for ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack on Twitter.
“The executor of the stabbing attacks in Minnesota yesterday was a soldier of the Islamic State and carried out the operation in response to the citizens of countries belonging to the crusader coalition,” the posting by the AMAQ news agency read.
Adnan was born in Kenya and grew up in the United States. He was a third year student at St. Cloud State University.
The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force is looking at the suspect’s social media and other contacts in order to determine what terrorist ties the suspect had as well as his motivation, said Richard Thornton of the FBI.
On Saturday evening, Adnan entered the mall wearing a security outfit. On weekends, Adnan worked as a security guard at Electrolux Home Products. Around 8:15 pm, Adnan started stabbing people in the common areas of the mall. According to witnesses, he asked one victim if they were Muslim before stabbing them and he made references to Allah during the attack.
When Falconer was faced with Adnan, he made the difficult decision to pull out his weapon and shoot. Falconer owns Tactical Advantage and Tactical Firearms Training in Waite Park and specializes in the use of firearms in real life situations. Security cameras from the scene showed Falconer shooting Adnan multiple times as he lunged for Falconer.
Additionally, Adnan has been identified as a Somali but has not yet been linked with the Somali-Minnesotans, who were convicted earlier this year for plotting to join ISIS.
