FBI says it stopped a Mall of America terror attack by a teen after
agents sold him an assault rifle
[October 08, 2026]
By ELLEN SCHMIDT and GENE JOHNSON
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — FBI agents thwarted a terror attack by a teenager on
the Mall of America after monitoring him for nearly two years and
ultimately supplying him with the AK-47 he planned to use, authorities
said Wednesday.
The 18-year-old had been on the FBI's radar since December 2024, when he
began trading messages with a confidential informant. A criminal
complaint says he initially expressed an interest in traveling to
Somalia to fight for al-Shabab militants. As his plans to instead attack
the mall solidified, the complaint says, agents sold him the gun and
ammunition on Tuesday and arrested him on the spot.
“This was a radicalized young man who needed to be watched,” U.S.
Attorney Daniel Rosen said. Agents “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.”
Sheikhdoon Abdullahi Mohamud was arrested Tuesday in a public park in
Richfield, several miles northwest of the Mall of America, after he paid
$600 to an undercover FBI employee posing as a member of the Islamic
State group for the rifle and 200 rounds of ammunition, the agency said.
Mohamud appeared in a yellow jail uniform for his initial appearance
Wednesday in federal court in St. Paul. He told the judge he did not
have a job, own a house or a car, or have any money in the bank. He was
represented by Siri Carlson McDowell, a federal public defender. Carlson
McDowell and relatives of Mohamud declined to comment after the hearing.
Rosen said Mohamud is an American-born U.S. citizen of Somali descent.
According to an FBI agent's sworn complaint, Mohamud repeatedly affirmed
in chat messages to the informant that he intended to attack and kill
non-Muslims at the mall on Oct. 24, the date of a scheduled arts
celebration by the Hmong community, Minnesota’s largest Asian ethnic
group.
When the informant asked if he was serious about committing the attack,
Mohamud replied, “yes i am 100% sure,” the complaint said, and added: “I
would have backed out by now if I wasn't sure.”
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The Mall of America flies an American flag, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026,
in Bloomington, Minn. (AP Photo/Ellen Schmidt)
The agent wrote that Mohamud's messages expressed admiration for
recent terror attacks as well as an interest in traveling to fight
in Somalia, ultimately for the Islamic State group. He later decided
he couldn’t afford to travel there and would attack the mall
instead, the complaint said.
The teen first came to the FBI’s attention in December 2024, the
same month the source began exchanging messages with him, the
complaint said. By May 2025, agents were concerned enough that they
went to his home. His mother told them he wasn’t home from school
yet and called the boy’s father, who declined to speak with them and
said he would give their contact information to his lawyer, the
complaint said.
“What I would say to parents all over Minnesota, and all over
America: If you get any 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, those are warnings that ought to be
heeded,” Rosen said.
Tens of thousands of people of Somali descent live in Minnesota,
dating back to when refugees began arriving in the 1990s. Over the
years several have been charged with attempting to join militant
groups.
___
Johnson reported from Seattle. Associated Press reporter Philip
Marcelo in New York contributed.
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