Federal agents arrested an 18-year-old Minnesota man Tuesday after he purchased an assault rifle from an undercover FBI employee as part of a sting operation designed to stop a planned mass attack at the Mall of America.
Sheikhdoon Abdullahi Mohamud was taken into custody at a public park in Richfield after paying $600 for an AK-47 and 200 rounds of ammunition to an agent posing as an ISIS member. Authorities say he intended to carry out the attack on October 24 during a scheduled Hmong arts celebration at the mall.
The FBI had been monitoring Mohamud since December 2024 when a confidential informant first made contact with him online. Court documents indicate he initially expressed interest in traveling overseas to join the extremist group al-Shabab before shifting his focus to a domestic attack.
U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen said agents tracked the suspect for nearly two years before moving in. “This was a radicalized young man who needed to be watched” Rosen told reporters. He added that the operation disrupted a plan to kill what Mohamud himself described as “maybe 30 to 60 people.”
In chat messages cited in the criminal complaint an FBI agent wrote that Mohamud repeatedly confirmed his intent to target non-Muslims at the mall. When pressed by the informant on whether he was serious Mohamud responded “yes i am 100% sure” and stated he would have abandoned the plan otherwise.
Rosen confirmed Mohamud is an American-born U.S. citizen of Somali descent. Investigators say he ultimately decided against traveling to Somalia to join ISIS because he could not afford the trip and chose to attack the mall instead.
Agents visited his home in May 2025 after growing increasingly concerned about his communications. His mother said he was still at school while his father declined to speak with investigators and said he would relay their contact information to an attorney.
Mohamud appeared in federal court in St. Paul on Wednesday wearing a yellow jail uniform. He told the judge he had no job, no property and no money. He was represented by federal public defender Siri Carlson McDowell who declined to comment after the hearing.
Rosen issued a direct warning to parents across the country urging them to take seriously any outreach from federal law enforcement regarding signs of radicalization in their children. Minnesota is home to one of the largest Somali communities in the United States with tens of thousands of residents whose families arrived as refugees beginning in the 1990s.