Sheikhdoon Abdullahi Mohamud, 18, was arrested and charged with plotting an ISIS-inspired attack at the Mall of America, the largest mall in the United States, and telling an undercover FBI agent that he was targeting the largest mall in the United States due to its Jewish owners, according to the U.S. Justice Department.
The Minnesota resident, who describes himself as a “dark Somali guy,” was arrested on Oct. 6 after buying a Norinco AK-47-style rifle, four 30-round magazines and about 200 live rounds for $600 from the FBI agent, according to federal court documents filed on Oct. 7 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota.
Mohamud allegedly intended to attack the mall on Oct. 24. Agents arrested him at gunpoint after he left the vehicle with the weapons.
Seamus Hughes, senior researcher at the University of Nebraska Omaha’s National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology and Education Center, told JNS that “ISIS still has a resonance with a small subsection of Americans.”
“Mohamud is the eighth person federally arrested this year for ISIS-related activities,” he told JNS. “The charging documents in this case have similar themes from past defendants in that there is a pull of would-be supporters, who consider traveling overseas to join ISIS but instead turn inward towards attacks in the United States.”
Triple Five Group, which is controlled by the Ghermezians, a Jewish family, owns the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn.
According to court filings, Mohamud wrote that he wanted to “harm the Jew just like the brothers in Australia Bondi Beach harmed the Jews” and that he would “just go grab assault rifle, bomb is too complicated. kill maybe 30-60 people inshallah and have 260 ammo.”
“I can’t wait until I kill kuffar man. Oct. 24 is the day inshallah,” he wrote, according to filings. The affidavit says that “kuffar” is a derogatory term for non-Muslims.
Investigators said that Mohamud discussed killing a neighbor with fire or a knife, shooting white people and attacking a nightclub. He also considered Christmas attacks at the mall or Valleyfair, a Minnesota amusement park, and driving a truck through a crowd in Ohio, per court documents.
Mohamud watched footage associated with the mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Florida on June 12, 2016, and discussed recruiting another person to shoot or bomb the mall, according to court documents. He also allegedly distributed terror propaganda and planned to join al-Shabaab or ISIS in Somalia and recorded an ISIS allegiance pledge.
He faces a count of securing a gun and ammunition that was to be used for a felony or a federal terror crime.
“These threats are taken extremely seriously, and we’re grateful this attack was stopped in its tracks by federal law enforcement who work every day to keep our country safe,” stated Todd Blanche, U.S. attorney general.
U.S. President Donald Trump told press outside the White House on Wednesday that “the FBI did a great job” stopping the attack.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) urged the state to invest in and work with federal and local law enforcement to “take terrorism and violent crime head on.”
