FBI seeks public’s help in St. Cloud mall stabbings

Published 10:12 am Friday, September 23, 2016

MINNEAPOLIS — Federal investigators are asking for the public’s help as they investigate the stabbings of 10 people at a Minnesota mall.

The FBI issued an appeal Thursday for information or cellphone video from people who were at Crossroads Center in St. Cloud on Saturday evening.

Authorities said Dahir Ahmed Adan, 20, wounded 10 people before he was shot and killed by an off-duty police officer. An Islamic State-run news agency claimed Adan was a “soldier” for the group.

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Federal authorities have said they are treating it as a potential act of terrorism, but have released little information since the attack. Family members and friends have said Adan wasn’t highly religious and they didn’t know what might have prompted the attack.

Adan reportedly put on a security guard uniform and went into the mall armed with what appeared to be a kitchen knife.

St. Cloud Police Chief Blair Anderson previously said the man reportedly made at least one reference to Allah and asked a victim if he or she was Muslim before attacking.

Adan had recently been employed part-time by the security firm Securitas, and he was assigned for a few months to an Electrolux factory near the mall but had resigned from the company in June. He was a recent St. Cloud State University student.