Planned Mass Shooting at MOA Driven by Antisemitism, Stopped by FBI
Jessica Tezoquipa, news editor
Oct. 6, a man was arrested after allegedly planning to enact an Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)-inspired mass shooting at the Mall of America (MOA), according to court records. The FBI alleges that Sheikhdoon Abdullahi Mohamud obtained an AK-47 and 200 rounds of ammunition from an undercover agent and was arrested at gunpoint in the parking lot of a public park in Richfield, MN.
A criminal complaint is just an allegation; all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
According to Keegan Rupenthal, a special agent with the FBI, Mohamud has been under criminal investigation since December 2024 after a confidential source with the FBI began communicating with him via social media. He expressed a desire to travel to Somalia to fight on behalf of ISIS; he expressed multiple times that if he lacked the monetary ability to travel to Somalia, he would start to plan a mass casualty event in Minnesota.
“Mohamud has been under criminal investigation since December 2024 after a confidential source with the FBI began communicating with him via social media.”
Jessica Tezoquipa
“As alleged in the criminal complaint, Mohamud took substantial steps to plot to murder innocent people in the name of ISIS,” said U.S. Attorney Daniel N. Rosen for the District of Minnesota. “Such threats are taken seriously, and I commend the committed public servants of the Joint Terrorism Task Force, the FBI, and my office, who work every day to stop them.”
In July 2026, Mohamud told the confidential source that he did not have the money to go to Somalia, “I will prepare here,” he wrote. In September, he expressed a desire to kill “Kuffar” – a derogatory way to refer to a non-Muslim. Prosecutors stated that he messaged the source that he wanted to target the Mall of America “because it’s owned by Jewish people [sic] so if I kill even 30 people no one would even go there anymore… I’ll just go grab assault rifle bomb is too complicated kill maybe 30-60 people insha Allah and have 260 ammo.” A date mentioned for a possible attack was Oct. 24, when the Mall of America would be hosting Hmong Arts Celebration.
“It feels like a lot of the time the FBI and other investigative agencies are more concerned with catching someone in the act or getting as close to doing a dangerous act as possible rather than actually getting them help,” shares Klaus Solko. “If a 16-year-old is interested in ISIS, get that 16-year-old help, don’t keep contributing to that conversation and do not give that person a gun.”
“This whole thing speaks to a systemic failure to address clear mental health issues among young people, especially young boys– it should alarm us that the people we employ to navigate high-risk situations like this would opt to coerce a child into recounting violent fantasies while holding a gun– to justify putting them in a cage– rather than divert them into counseling, assess what’s triggering those violent tendencies, and justify getting that child into treatment,” states Aaron Munoz.