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The FBI arrested an 18-year-old Minnesota man on Tuesday, October 6, after he allegedly bought a rifle from an undercover agent for a planned mass shooting at the Mall of America, according to a Justice Department release.
Prosecutors identify the suspect as Sheikhdoon Abdullahi Mohamud of Richfield. He faces one count of knowingly receiving a firearm and ammunition to commit a federal crime of terrorism. The charge is a criminal complaint, and he is presumed innocent.
The complaint says he planned to carry out the attack on October 24, the date of a Hmong arts celebration at the mall in Bloomington. He allegedly told a confidential source he wanted to kill between 30 and 60 people. He also allegedly said he wanted to follow earlier attacks, including the Pulse nightclub shooting and the 2025 New Orleans attack.
On October 6, he allegedly paid about $600 in cash to an undercover FBI employee posing as an ISIS member. In return he received an AK-47-style rifle, four 30-round magazines and about 200 rounds of ammunition. The FBI had made the rifle inert. Agents arrested him in a public park in Richfield right after the sale, according to an AP report carried by PBS NewsHour.
The case began in December 2024, when investigators say he started exchanging hundreds of messages with the confidential source. He first spoke of travelling to Somalia to join a designated terrorist group. The complaint says he decided he could not afford the trip and chose an attack in Minnesota instead. Agents visited his home in May 2025, and his father declined to speak with them.
Through July, August and September, the complaint says, he discussed the mall as a target, talked about buying a gun and recruiting others, and sent a video pledging allegiance to ISIS. U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen said he "took substantial steps to plot to murder innocent people in the name of ISIS."
He made his first court appearance in St. Paul on Wednesday. AP reported that he told the judge he had no job, house, car or savings. A federal public defender represented him. The FBI led the investigation with its Joint Terrorism Task Force, the Bloomington Police Department and IRS Criminal Investigation.
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