FBI officials stopped a potential terrorist attack on the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, authorities said Wednesday. An 18-year-old boy was arrested for obtaining a firearm to commit an act of terrorism.
Sheikhdoon Abdullahi Mohamud had been the subject of an FBI investigation for the past two years. He was arrested Tuesday in a public park after paying an undercover FBI employee posing as an Islamic State member $600 for an AK-47 and 200 rounds of ammunition, according to the criminal complaint.
His messages with a confidential informant revealed that Mohamud had expressed intentions to join terrorist organizations overseas, but those plans quickly became a planned attack in Minnesota when those plans failed. The messages date back to December 2024.
Mohamud was seen on mall security cameras walking around “casually” and eventually robbed a Lids store at gunpoint before being apprehended, according to Minnesota police.
“I want to be martyred inshallah,” he said in the messages with the informant.
“That’s why I want to save up to go to another country or… get a gun here and start killing a bunch of white people.”
Daniel Rosen, a U.S. attorney, said Mohamud “needs to be monitored.”
It is unclear what initially prompted the FBI investigation. According to Rosen, the officers “were able to detect a threat and neutralize it before the defendant carried out his intention to kill, in his words, between 30 and 60 people, as we allege in much greater detail in the complaint.”
The potential shooting at the mall comes after two recent shootings involving Somali teenagers as victims and suspects, including a gang-related shooting in Bloomington where more than 100 rounds were fired.
With terrorism and violence a growing concern in Minnesota, some in law enforcement are calling for the creation of a regional task force to tackle more harm in the state.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
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