Police Identify Suspect In Minnesota Mall Stabbing

Police say they have identified 20-year-old Dahir Adan as the man suspected of stabbing multiple people in a Minnesota mall on Saturday.

An off-duty police officer fatally shot Adan, who was allegedly armed with a kitchen knife and wearing a security guard’s uniform, during the rampage in the Crossroad Center mall in St. Cloud.

None of the stabbing victims died in the attack. All of them — eight men, a woman and a 15-year-old girl — have all been released after receiving medical treatment.

It appears that Adan carried out the attack alone, St. Cloud Police Chief Blair Anderson said Monday.

Adan allegedly made a reference to Allah and asked whether at least one shopper were Muslim before attacking, Anderson said. The FBI is investigating the incident a “potential act of terrorism,” according to Special Agent-In-Charge Rick Thornton. An ISIS news agency had earlier claimed that one of its supporters launched the attack.

St. Cloud police had three previous interactions with Adan for minor incidents like traffic violations, according to Anderson. None ended in an arrest.

The suspect’s father, Ahmed Adan, first identified his son as the attacker in an interview with the Star-Tribune newspaper. Speaking through a translator, Ahmed told the publication that his son was a Somali who had been born in Kenya and grew up in the United States.

Adan had started his third year at St. Cloud State University, according to other relatives who spoke to the Star-Tribune. He also worked for a private security company, according to CNN.

The city of St. Cloud is located about 65 miles northwest of Minneapolis. Activists in the region’s large Somali community condemned the stabbing and said it was not reflective the attitudes of Muslims or Somalis in the area, the St. Cloud Times reported.