Federal agents arrested an 18-year-old Minnesota man after he allegedly pledged allegiance to ISIS and plotted a mass shooting at the Mall of America to kill dozens.
Sheikhdoon Abdullahi Mohamud, a U.S. citizen from the Twin Cities, was taken into custody at gunpoint Tuesday in a Richfield park parking lot during a meeting set up to buy an assault rifle, federal authorities said.
A federal criminal complaint filed Wednesday alleges he told an FBI confidential source he wanted to carry out a mass casualty attack at the mall in Bloomington, or at Valleyfair amusement park in Shakopee, and that he sent a Discord video pledging allegiance to ISIS.
Minnesota U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen and FBI Minneapolis Special Agent in Charge Christopher Dotson detailed the case at a Wednesday afternoon news conference. Rosen said agents stopped the plot before anyone was hurt.
"They were able to detect a threat and disrupt it before the defendant carried out his intention to kill, in his words, maybe 30 to 60 people,"
Rosen said.
According to the complaint, a confidential human source exchanged hundreds of messages with Mohamud from December 2024 until the day of the arrest. The talks moved across social media and encrypted apps.
Mohamud allegedly expressed a desire to travel to Somalia, join al-Shabaab, and fight for the group, or commit a mass casualty attack in Minnesota. By July, he told the informant he lacked the money to go overseas and would strike inside the United States instead.
He said any attack here would not be “for any worldly matter” but “for the sake of Allah only.”
Last month, prosecutors say, he focused on the Mall of America during the Hmong Arts Celebration set for Oct. 24. “It will be a lot of people,” he allegedly wrote. He also considered Valleyfair.
His stated reason for targeting the mall was blunt: “because it’s owned by Jewish.”
The affidavit says Mohamud watched a video of the 2016 Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando and concluded he could copy it. “I just walk in and shoot,” he allegedly told the source.
He also drew inspiration from last year’s deadly attack at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia. Authorities describe the messages as evidence of radicalization that moved from talk to concrete steps.
Dotson did not say much about what agents found in those exchanges.
"The messages this defendant allegedly sent to others were chilling. They document the idolization of ideologically motivated violence, a callous disregard to the sanctity of human life, a blind hatred of people of other faiths and a cold commitment to carrying out his vision of violence in our community,"
Dotson said. He added that Mohamud “allegedly sought martyrdom in carrying out his plans to murder innocent civilians.”
In May 2025, the FBI tried to speak with Mohamud’s parents after seeing signs he was becoming radicalized. Rosen said those attempts were rebuffed.
"The FBI attempted to speak with his parents having seen that this young man was becoming radicalized, and those attempts were rebuffed by the parents,"
Rosen said. He then spoke directly to families nationwide.
"I just would say to parents all over Minnesota and, for that matter all over America, if you get the indication, especially if you hear from federal law enforcement, that your son or daughter is being radicalized to the point where federal law enforcement wants to come and give you that warning, heed those warnings."
Rosen said agents recognized a radicalized young man who needed watching, and that the radicalization advanced until he planned a mass casualty attack “in the most serious of ways.” He praised the FBI’s diligence in stopping it.
On Tuesday, Mohamud met the source and an undercover employee in the Richfield park lot. The complaint states he left the undercover vehicle carrying a Norinco AK-47 assault rifle, model Mac-90 Sporter, four magazines, and about 200 live rounds of 7.62x39-caliber ammunition. Agents arrested him at gunpoint.
Prosecutors allege he knowingly received the firearm and ammunition knowing, or having reasonable cause to believe, they would be used to commit a felony and a federal crime of terrorism, including providing or conspiring to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization.
Just the News reported the same core allegations: Mohamud told the confidential source he wanted to join al-Shabaab or stage a mass casualty attack, with the late-October timing and the intent to kill dozens. No injuries occurred. The case has also drawn wider attention to extremism concerns tied to parts of Minnesota’s Somali-expat community.
Mohamud had also allegedly considered buying two pistols online before settling on the rifle meeting that ended in his arrest. The complaint was filed the next day. Absolute calendar dates beyond the relative “Tuesday” and “Wednesday” markers were not detailed in the initial reporting.
The public facts show a clear sequence: months of encrypted talk, an ISIS pledge on Discord, an antisemitic target choice, a specific crowded date, and a live rifle with hundreds of rounds. Agents disrupted it at the point of transfer. Shoppers at the Mall of America never faced the gunfire Mohamud allegedly described.
Rosen’s warning to parents stands as the practical takeaway. Federal law enforcement saw the radicalization early enough to knock on a door. That door stayed closed. The planning continued until the undercover handoff.
Soft pedaling jihadist recruitment, antisemitic motive, or family denial does not make malls safer. Arrests like this one do. The next warning will matter just as much as the rifle that never made it into the food court.
