The FBI thwarted an attack on the Mall of America by a teenager after agents supplied him with an assault rifle, authorities announced Wednesday.
Criminal charges were filed against against an 18-year-old Sheikhdoon Abdullahi Mohamud is federally charged with one count of knowingly receiving a firearm and ammunition while knowing or having reason to believe they would be used in a felony or federal crime of terrorism.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation had been investigating Mohammed since December 2024, according to the criminal complaint.
Mohamud purchased an AK-47 and 200 rounds of live ammunition with the intent to kill 30 to 60 people.
U.S. Attorney Daniel N. Rosen on when it was time for officials to intervene.
"When he started talking about dates and methods, and the level of enthusiasm and commitment to it, the determination to intervene and disrupt was made, and to do it the soonest possible time," Rosen explains. “This was a radicalized young man who needed to be watched."
Rosen said an attempt by the FBI to speak with Mohamud's parents in 2025 were rebuffed. He had been under investigation for nearly two years, trading messages with a confidential informant, before agents sold him the rifle and ammunition, they said.
"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 adds.
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 ISIS for an AK-47 and 200 rounds of ammunition, according to the criminal complaint.
In text messages with a confidential FBI source, Mohamud repeatedly affirmed his intent to carry out an attack to kill non-Muslims, the complaint said. It was not immediately known if the teen had an attorney who might speak on his behalf.
He floated the idea of joining al Qaeda and al Shabaab before deciding to lend his support to the Islamic State. FBI special agent Christopher Dotson talked the messages Mohamud sent to others.
"They document the idolization of ideologically motivated violence, a callous disregard for 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 describes.
