FBI Arrests 18-Year-Old Accused of Planning ISIS-Backed Attack at Mall of America

The FBI arrested an 18-year-old Minnesota man Tuesday and federal prosecutors say he was planning a mass shooting at the Mall of America in support of ISIS. U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen announced the case Wednesday in Minneapolis.

Sheikhdoon Abdullahi Mohamud is 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. Everything below comes from the criminal complaint and the officials who described it. These are allegations, not findings.

The arrest

According to the complaint, Mohamud was arrested at gunpoint in a public park in Richfield, several miles northwest of the mall. He had just paid $600 to an undercover FBI employee posing as an ISIS member.

The affidavit says he left the employee's vehicle with a Norinco AK-47-style rifle (model Mac-90 Sporter), four magazines and about 200 rounds of 7.62x39 ammunition before agents moved in. Fox News reported that the rifle had been rendered inoperable, though the ammunition was live. (Fox News gave the price as $800; the AP, CBS and other outlets, citing the complaint, say $600.)

FBI Minneapolis Special Agent in Charge Christopher Dotson said Mohamud met someone he believed was a loyal ISIS member to buy the rifle "knowing it would be used in a felony or federal crime of terrorism."

Nearly two years of messages

The investigation began around December 2024. An FBI confidential human source exchanged "hundreds of bi-directional messages" with Mohamud on social media and encrypted apps until the day of the arrest, according to the complaint.

The early conversations were about leaving the U.S. to join al-Shabaab in Somalia. The FBI contacted Mohamud's parents in May 2025. His father, per the complaint, said he did not want to share information about himself or his son and referred agents to his attorney.

In July, Mohamud allegedly told the source he lacked the money to travel to Somalia and would attack in the U.S. instead. He said he wasn't doing it "for any worldly matter" but "for the sake of Allah only."

The complaint says he floated hitting the Mall of America in Bloomington or Valleyfair amusement park in Shakopee around Christmas, and that he might first buy two pistols online. It quotes him saying he wanted to target the mall "because it's owned by Jewish" and that he drew inspiration partly from last year's deadly antisemitic attack at Bondi Beach in Sydney.

The alleged target date

In September, the affidavit says, Mohamud wrote to the source: "I can't wait until I kill kuffar man. October 24 is the day insha Allah." Asked why that date, he allegedly pointed to the Hmong Arts Celebration at the mall, saying "it will be a lot of people."

He also allegedly told the source he had been watching video of the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando and thought he could do the same. "I just walk in and shoot," he wrote, per the complaint. Prosecutors say he posted a video on Discord last month pledging allegiance to ISIS.

Rosen said the defendant intended to kill, "in his words, maybe 30 to 60 people." He called Mohamud "a radicalized young man who needed to be watched" and said agents "were able to detect a threat, and disrupt it, before the defendant carried out his intention to kill."

The sting and what remains open

The FBI itself supplied the rifle. Authorities say agents sold it to Mohamud, which is the standard shape of a sting but a fact worth stating plainly. The complaint describes a defendant who repeatedly affirmed his intent to attack non-Muslims in messages with the source, and who, per the affidavit, discussed buying pistols online on his own.

It is not known whether Mohamud has an attorney, and no lawyer has commented on the allegations or on how the FBI conducted its operation. How a court weighs the informant's role over nearly two years of messages will come out in the proceedings, not in the press conference.

The case also has a timeline of note. The investigation opened around December 2024, and the FBI contacted his parents in May 2025. The investigation then ran until the arrest, roughly three weeks before the Oct. 24 date he allegedly named.

The FBI's broader claims

In a statement to Fox News Digital, the FBI director said the bureau is "moving more effectively than we ever have before at stopping terrorists," citing more than 1,100 individuals prevented from conducting attacks and over 4,000 foreign-terrorist-organization-related disruptions and arrests, a 38% increase. Those numbers come from that statement; the sources do not independently verify them.

The immediate next step is the federal court process in Minnesota. The complaint is the opening document, and Mohamud's response to the charge has yet to be heard.