Update at 12:45 p.m: The man who stabbed eight people at a mall in Minnesota on Saturday night was “a soldier of the Islamic State,” according to Amaq, a news agency linked to ISIS. The stabber, who was shot to death by an off-duty police officer, “carried out the operation in response to calls to target the citizens of countries belong to the crusader coalition,” the news agency added.
Just because it is espousing the link, it doesn’t mean ISIS planned, or even knew about, the attack, notes the Associated Press. The group has encouraged attacks by supporters and has also been known to claim responsibility for attacks that were not actually planned by ISIS.
Original post: A man carrying a knife and dressed in a private security uniform wounded at least eight people at a Minnesota shopping mall before he was shot to death by an off-duty police officer. The man apparently made reference to Allah during the attack and asked at least one of the people who was injured whether they were Muslim before assaulting them at the Crossroads Center mall in St. Cloud, about 60 miles from Minneapolis–St. Paul. “Whether that was a terrorist attack or not, I’m not willing to say that right now because we just don’t know,” St. Cloud Police Chief William Blair Anderson said. All but one of the injured have been released from the hospital.
Authorities have not yet given the name of the suspect who was shot inside a Macy’s. Police had three previous contact with the suspect before Saturday’s incident, although that was mostly for minor traffic violations, according to Anderson. There are no signs anyone else was involved in the attack, although law enforcement officials said it was too soon to tell for sure.
“People came running around the corner and I freaked out because I thought it was a terrorist attack or something because I saw a lot of people, so I grabbed my kids,” Danny Carranza, who was at the mall with this children, told the St. Cloud Times. “I ran as much as I could and I heard someone yell ‘Stop! Stop!’ As soon as the door shut I heard gunshots.”
