FBI stops ISIS mall massacre plot in Minnesota

An 18-year-old in Richfield, Minnesota, took possession of a Norinco AK-47-style rifle and roughly 200 live rounds of 7.62x39mm ammunition on Oct. 6, 2026.

Sheikhdoon Abdullahi Mohamud believed the seller was affiliated with ISIS. The rifle, a Mac-90 Sporter bearing serial number 94145360, had been rendered inert by the FBI before the handoff. Agents arrested him shortly after the transaction—one account places the arrest at a public park, another at gunpoint near his residence. He is charged under 18 U.S.C. § 924(h) with knowingly receiving a firearm and ammunition for use in a federal crime of terrorism. The charge alleges he received the weapon and ammunition knowing or having reasonable cause to believe they would be used to commit a felony and a federal crime of terrorism, including material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization. The allegations have not been proven in court.

The target he settled on was the Mall of America's Hmong Arts Celebration on Oct. 24. In messages with a confidential human source, he wrote that the mall drew him "because its owned by jewish [sic] so if i kill even 30 people noone would go there anymore. I want to harm the jew just like the brothers in australia bondi beach harmed the jews." He calculated that an assault rifle and hundreds of rounds could kill "maybe 30-60 people insha Allah." A bomb, he said, was "too complicated." He would drive to the crowded place and start shooting. He also floated Valleyfair around Christmas and wrote, "i might buy two pist. ols online and go to malll of america or valley fair on Minnesota on christmas time," breaking the word "pistols" in the way the affidavit notes suspects try to dodge platform filters.

The Minneapolis Joint Terrorism Task Force opened the investigation in December 2024 after Mohamud began exchanging messages with a confidential human source known to the FBI since 2017. Over 21 months the traffic ran across Telegram, Signal, Discord, TikTok, and SimpleX under handles that included @misterdoon, Mister Miser, mistermister, misterman240, and baaqiyah_31485—baaqiyah being an ISIS slogan meaning the caliphate remains. The source is described in the complaint as having exchanged hundreds of bi-directional messages with him.

The messages, as set out in the 23-page affidavit of FBI Special Agent Keegan Rupenthal, track a steady narrowing from overseas ambition to a domestic mass shooting. After the Jan. 1, 2025, Bourbon Street attack in which Shamsud-Din Jabbar killed 14, Mohamud called the attacker a "real muslim" and wrote that Allah should grant him jannah. Asked how school was going, he answered, "Its terrible man but i gotta keep doing it and if i fail its straight to just killin kuffar. And im already failing so if i dont pass in a yr ill probably save up for a gun." He discussed killing "a bunch of white ppl (because a lot of white ppl are kuffar)" and shooting a club. He said what he really wanted was to "fight in Somalia support the isis in puntland," and later, "When i make hijrah insha Allah i will go to ISIS in somal no matter how tempting going to Al Shabaab is." He sent Al-Kataib propaganda showing fighters, mortars, and the black flag. When money blocked the overseas path, he told the source in July 2026 that he would "do attack here" and that he was not doing it "for any worldly matter" but "for the sake of Allah only."

He cited the 2017 Pulse nightclub shooting and wrote, "i think i can do the same thing omar matteen did. i just walk in and shoot." He moved the date to October: "I can't wait until I kill kuffar man. October 24 is the day insha Allah." The draw, he said, was the Hmong Arts Celebration—"yeah it's a bunch of asians [sic] Chinese Vietnamese and other kuffar celebrating. it will be a lot of people." He filmed a bay'ah, a pledge of allegiance, on what he said was his younger brother's iPad, face covered with a red-and-white keffiyeh, swearing loyalty to ISIS caliph Abu Hafs al-Hashimi al-Qurashi. The caption read, "i made the video so dawlah know that i do attack, i give my allegiance to amir al mu'mineen Abu Hafs al Qurayshi." Pressed on whether he was sure, he wrote, "I am 100% commited [sic] to the cause of dying for the sake of Allah only." During the Oct. 6 weapons meeting he described himself as "an active member of ISIS" and repeated that part of his motivation was that the Mall of America was owned by Jews.

In May 2025, while the messaging continued, FBI agents tried to interview him at the family home. His mother, identified in the affidavit only as A.O., said he was at school and would return by bus. His father, A.M.W., told agents he did not want to share any information pertaining to himself or his son and directed them to an attorney. U.S. Attorney Daniel N. Rosen later said authorities did not suspect the parents understood the extent of the radicalization. The case kept running. Fox News headlined the outcome as a Minnesota man accused of plotting a Mall of America attack and pledging allegiance to ISIS.

On Oct. 7, Rosen and FBI Minneapolis Special Agent in Charge Christopher D. Dotson held a news conference announcing the charges. Rosen said the FBI had arrested and charged an individual who was planning a mass-casualty attack in support of ISIS at the Mall of America later that month, and that agents had detected and disrupted the threat before the defendant could carry out his intention to kill, in his words, maybe 30 to 60 people. Dotson called the messages chilling and said they documented the idealization of ideologically motivated violence, a callous disregard for the sanctity of human life, a blind hatred of people of other faiths, and a cold commitment to carrying out that vision in the community. Instead of finding the means to kill countless innocent Americans, Dotson said, the defendant found a team of FBI agents ready to arrest him.

The strongest argument available on the other side in the public record is the legal baseline itself: the complaint states allegations, Mohamud is presumed innocent unless proven guilty, and he has not been convicted. His father's refusal to speak and referral to counsel is the family's recorded response. No detailed public defense rebuttal of the messages, the video, or the weapons transaction appears in the unsealed papers or the Oct. 7 announcements.