A federal investigation that began nearly two years ago ended Tuesday with the arrest of an 18-year-old accused of preparing to carry out a mass shooting at the Mall of America, authorities said Wednesday. Ayan, mother of Sheikhdoon Abdullahi Mohamud, right, stands with family members after her son’s initial court appearance at the Warren E. Burger Federal Building on Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026, in St. Paul, Minn., with portraits of President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance displayed in the background. (Kerem Yücel/Minnesota Public Radio via AP) License this photo
FBI agents said they disrupted the planned attack after tracking the teenager and, in the final stage of the operation, providing him with the AK-47 he allegedly intended to use.
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Mohamud first came to the FBI’s attention in December 2024, when he began communicating with a confidential informant. According to a criminal complaint, he initially discussed traveling to Somalia to fight alongside al-Shabab militants. When he shifted toward an attack at the mall, undercover agents sold him the rifle and ammunition Tuesday and arrested him immediately afterward.
“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.”
The FBI said Mohamud paid $600 to an undercover employee posing as a member of the Islamic State group. The teenager received the rifle and 200 rounds of ammunition before his arrest in a public park in Richfield, several miles northwest of the Mall of America.
At his initial appearance Wednesday in federal court in St. Paul, Mohamud wore a yellow jail uniform. He told the judge that he did not have a job, a home, a car or money in a bank account. Siri Carlson McDowell, a federal public defender, represented him. Neither Carlson McDowell nor Mohamud’s relatives spoke to reporters after the hearing.
Rosen said Mohamud is an American-born U.S. citizen of Somali descent.
The FBI’s sworn complaint says Mohamud repeatedly told the informant through online messages that he planned to attack and kill non-Muslims at the mall on Oct. 24. That date coincides with a scheduled arts celebration organized by the Hmong community, Minnesota’s largest Asian ethnic group.
When the informant questioned whether he truly intended to carry out the attack, Mohamud responded, “yes i am 100% sure,” according to the complaint. He added: “I would have backed out by now if I wasn’t sure.”
An FBI agent wrote that Mohamud’s messages showed admiration for recent terrorist attacks and described his interest in going to Somalia to fight, eventually for the Islamic State group. The complaint says he abandoned the travel plan because he could not afford it and chose the mall as an alternative target.
The source began exchanging messages with Mohamud in December 2024, when the teenager first appeared on the FBI’s radar. By May 2025, agents had become sufficiently concerned to visit his home. His mother told them he had not yet returned from school and contacted his father, who declined to speak with the agents and said he would pass their information to his lawyer, according to the complaint.
“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.
Minnesota is home to tens of thousands of people of Somali descent, many of whose families arrived after refugees began settling in the state during the 1990s. Several people from the community have been charged over the years with trying to join militant organizations.
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Johnson reported from Seattle. Associated Press reporter Philip Marcelo in New York contributed.
