8 Stabbed in Minnesota Mall, Possible ISIS Connection

18 Sep, 2016

The prime shopping center for St. Cloud is shut down until Monday and is being treated as a crime scene in the wake of a man, potentially motivated by global terror, stabbing several people late Saturday before an off-duty police officer fatally shot the attacker.

In a media briefing after midnight Sunday, Police Chief William Blair Anderson said the off-duty officer from another jurisdiction confronted and killed the suspect inside Crossroads Center. He said the man — dressed in a private security uniform — reportedly asked at least one victim whether they were Muslim before assaulting them, and referred to Allah during the attacks.

Police have not said whether the suspect was targeting or trying to avoid Muslims for attack. A news conference at the Police Department headquarters was scheduled for Sunday.

Roughly 12 hours after the stabbings, a news agency said to speak for ISIL went to Twitter to claim credit for the mall violence. “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.

It was not immediately clear whether ISIL had planned the attack or was giving a nod to a “lone wolf” — of which there have been many around the world — inspired by the terror group’s global message.

Kyle Loven, a spokesman for the FBI in Minnesota, said his agency is aware of ISIL’s claim but said the FBI is not yet in a position to comment further.

“The FBI is actively engaged in the investigation,” Loven said. “We’re working with the St. Cloud Police Department, [and] we’re trying to ascertain the facts of the incident.”

At a news conference Sunday, Mayor Dave Kleis said there were nine stabbing victims, with three remaining hospitalized as of 7 a.m. The officer who killed the suspect was identified as Jason Falconer.

Jaylani Hussein, executive director in Minnesota of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said Sunday afternoon that “we are definitely concerned about the potential for backlash in the community, both in the immediate run and the longer term.”

Hussein went on to call the attack “an isolated incident, and we still don’t know the full facts.”

Local and federal officers were spotted late Sunday morning outside an apartment building, where the suspect was believed to have lived.

Minnesota is home to the nation’s largest ongoing terrorism recruitment investigation, with 11 Somali-Minnesotans having been charged since late 2014 in an alleged plot to travel to Syria and join ISIL. Two were charged in absentia after they successfully left the country – among at least five young Minnesotans federal officials say successfully joined the group. Six others pleaded guilty and three were convicted in a high-profile May trial.

The cases, which followed the departures of several dozen men and women to join the terror group Al-Shabab in Somalia years prior, led the U.S. Department of Justice to select Minneapolis as one of three federal pilot cities for a project to counter radical recruitment.

The shooting of the St. Cloud suspect happened inside Macy’s, according to Mayor Dave Kleis. Those stabbed were attacked starting about 8:15 p.m. in corridors, businesses and common areas, authorities said.

The mall, located on heavily traveled W. Division Street, will not be open Sunday but will be back in business the next day starting at 10 a.m., said Kevin Berry, spokesman for the Chicago-based company that operates the mall.

“We are devastated by the events that happened at Crossroads Center,” Berry, of General Growth Properties, said in a statement Sunday. “Out of respect to the victims, their families and the ongoing investigation, the shopping center will be closed today.”

Berry’s statement was posted on the mall’s exterior doors explaining to would-be shoppers why the center was closed.

In the meantime, police press on with piecing together the events surrounding the violence and are trying to learn more about the attacker, whose identity has yet to be released. More from authorities is expected later Sunday.

The eight who suffered noncritical injuries were taken to St. Cloud Hospital. All but one has been released, police said. That person’s condition and the identities of the victims have yet to be revealed.

Star Tribune 

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