FBI agents stopped an 18-year-old Minnesota man after he allegedly bought a rifle from an undercover operative and plotted an ISIS-backed mass shooting at the Mall of America.
Sheikhdoon Abdullahi Mohamud, a U.S. citizen born in Minnesota, was taken into custody after he paid $600 for an AK-47-style rifle, four magazines, and roughly 200 rounds of live ammunition from an undercover FBI employee he believed was tied to ISIS. Agents arrested him at gunpoint once he left the vehicle with the items in a duffel bag.
Federal authorities say the teen had spent months discussing a desire to kill nonbelievers and carry out an attack in a crowded public place. Fox News reported that he pointed to a high-traffic event at the Mall of America in Bloomington and set his sights on late October.
The case underscores how quickly radical talk online can turn into a concrete plan against ordinary Americans shopping, working, or gathering in public. It also shows why aggressive federal counterterrorism work still matters at home.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Cowan Wright ordered Mohamud temporarily detained after an eight-minute initial hearing Wednesday in federal court in Minnesota. A preliminary and detention hearing was set for Monday, Oct. 19, at 11 a.m. ET.
The FBI Minneapolis Field Office opened its investigation around December 2024. Agents used a confidential human source who communicated with Mohamud over encrypted messaging and social media.
Early conversations centered on leaving the United States. In May, court papers say, Mohamud told the source he was "so excited to make hijrah" and wanted to go to Somalia, get married, and "fight the enemies of Allah." He talked about working roughly six weeks to save $2,000 for a plane ticket and join the Somalia-based terrorist group al-Shabaab.
By July the money was not there. According to the affidavit, he wrote "so i will do attack here." He discussed buying two pistols online and hitting the Mall of America or the Minnesota State Fair around Christmas.
In September the rhetoric hardened. Mohamud allegedly told the source, "I can’t wait until I kill kuffar man. October 24 is the day insha Allah," and referenced a "Hmong Arts Celebration" at the mall with "a lot of people." He also sent a selfie-style video pledging allegiance to ISIS and its leader.
"I can’t wait until I kill kuffar man. October 24 is the day insha Allah,"
On Sept. 25 the source said a "brother" could sell an AK-style rifle, magazines, and ammunition. Mohamud indicated he wanted the weapon fully automatic. Days later he met the undercover employee, completed the $600 purchase of the rendered-inoperable rifle plus live rounds, and said he planned a shooting at a "kuffar festival" at the Mall of America.
He was charged with knowingly receiving a firearm and ammunition while knowing or having reasonable cause to believe they would be used to commit a felony and a federal crime of terrorism.
Just The News reported that Minnesota U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen described the intended body count in blunt terms. Rosen said Mohamud intended to kill "maybe 30 or 60 people."
That figure matches what other outlets carried from the same briefing. Breitbart noted Rosen’s praise for the agents who watched a radicalized young man and stopped him before anyone was hurt.
No one was injured. The attack never reached the mall floor. The rifle never fired. Still, the stated goal was a mass-casualty strike in one of the country’s busiest retail centers in support of a designated foreign terrorist organization.
Additional reporting filled in the suspect’s own words about method. The New York Post detailed messages in which Mohamud wrote he would “just go grab assault rifle” because a bomb was “too complicated,” aiming to “kill maybe 30-60 people insha Allah and have 260 ammo.” That outlet also described antisemitic language in the chats, including claims the mall was “owned by jewish” and references to other attacks on Jews.
Those details, if proven, show a mix of ISIS loyalty, local target selection, and naked intent to slaughter civilians. They also show why the undercover buy was timed when it was.
FBI Minneapolis Special Agent in Charge Christopher Dotson laid out the core allegation at a Wednesday press conference.
"Mohamud met with someone he believed to be a loyal member of ISIS to attempt to purchase an AK-47 rifle, knowing it would be used in a felony or federal crime of terrorism,"
Dotson added that Mohamud "planned to use the gun he bought in a high-traffic public area just a few weeks' time in support of a designated foreign terrorist organization."
FBI Director Kash Patel told Fox News Digital the bureau stopped the plan cold.
"allegedly obtained a weapon he hoped to use in a mass casualty attack in support of ISIS, but this FBI arrested him and put a stop to his plans."
Patel pointed to broader results: more than 1,100 individuals prevented from conducting attacks, more than 4,000 foreign terrorist organization-related disruptions and arrests, and a 38% increase in that work. He thanked the Minneapolis office for an investigation that "likely saved lives."
The Washington Examiner reported that Minnesota’s top federal prosecutor announced the disruption of the ISIS-inspired plot after a yearslong effort that had been running since December 2024.
President Donald Trump told reporters the FBI "did a great job." House Speaker Mike Johnson, speaking in Mason, Michigan, called the case another reminder of how important law enforcement remains.
"What would happen if that 18-year-old had made it into that mall? It would have been a very different outcome."
Johnson applauded the officers involved and said the country needs them to keep doing that work. Similar federal vigilance has surfaced in other recent terrorism cases, including the DOJ’s first use of the Alien Terrorist Removal Court after an Election Day ISIS-related plot.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz posted on X that he was "Grateful for the swift and professional action to keep Minnesotans safe." He called it the kind of threat federal law enforcement must keep preventing.
The Mall of America itself issued a statement thanking the FBI and its partners "for their vigilance and extraordinary investigative work in identifying, disrupting and removing this threat and protecting the community we all share." The mall said the news was unsettling for guests, tenants, employees, and the broader community, and that safety remains its highest priority.
Mohamud’s parents are Somali nationals who later became naturalized U.S. citizens. Multiple federal law enforcement sources told Fox News Digital the family arrived through a New York City airport in 2000. The mother naturalized in 2010 and the father in 2017. How they first entered, refugee status or another path, was not clarified in the available records. Their son was born in the United States.
That background does not create guilt by association. It does raise familiar questions about long-term radicalization pathways inside communities that have absorbed large numbers of migrants from regions where groups like al-Shabaab and ISIS recruit. Intelligence warnings about foreign-directed threats continue to surface, including reports that Israel flagged a new Iranian assassination plot aimed at American targets.
Law-and-order priorities also remain front and center in cities dealing with everyday violence. President Trump has pressed the point that federal help can mean the difference between order and chaos, a theme he returned to when he warned Chicago about gun violence after a bloody weekend.
Court papers describe months of planning talk, a specific date, a chosen venue, a weapons buy, and an ISIS pledge. They do not yet publicly list every statute citation, any alleged co-conspirators, or the full verbatim content of the allegiance video. The exact calendar date of the Tuesday buy relative to publication was not pinned down beyond the hearing schedule.
Those gaps will likely narrow as the detention hearing proceeds and more filings hit the docket. For now the operative facts are straightforward: an 18-year-old allegedly moved from overseas jihad talk to a domestic mall attack plan, tried to arm himself through what he thought was an ISIS contact, and walked into an FBI trap instead.
The undercover rifle was inoperable. The ammunition was real. The intent, as charged and as quoted in the affidavit, was to drive to a crowded place and start shooting.
Americans who take their kids to a mall should not have to wonder whether the next shopper is carrying out a foreign terrorist group’s wishes. When the FBI runs a disciplined source operation, documents the threats in real time, and makes the arrest before blood is spilled, that is the system working as voters expect, focused on prevention, not press conferences after the fact.