The FBI says it stopped a mass shooting before it could happen. An 18-year-old from a Minneapolis suburb was arrested Tuesday after buying an AK-47 rifle from an undercover FBI agent, part of what federal prosecutors call an ISIS-inspired plot to attack the Mall of America.
Sheikhdoon Abdullahi Mohamud paid $600 for the rifle, four 30-round magazines and about 200 rounds of ammunition, according to the Justice Department. Prosecutors say he told an informant he planned to kill 30 to 60 people at the mall on October 24.
The FBI had been watching Mohamud for nearly two years. He first came onto their radar in December 2024, and investigators say he discussed the plot in messages over TikTok and Signal. On Tuesday, the undercover agent sold him the gun, which the FBI had rendered inert, and arrested him on the spot in a public park.
Mohamud made his first court appearance Wednesday in St. Paul, where he was ordered held ahead of an October 19 detention hearing. He is charged with one count of receiving a firearm and ammunition to commit a federal crime of terrorism. Prosecutors say he also sent the informant a video of himself pledging allegiance to ISIS.
The Justice Department says Mohamud wanted an attack similar to the Pulse nightclub shooting and the New Year’s Day attack in New Orleans. A criminal complaint is only an allegation, and he is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.
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Featured photo: Tylervigen via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.