An 18-year-old Minnesota man has been charged with plotting a mass shooting at the Mall of America while pledging allegiance to ISIS. Federal prosecutors announced Wednesday that Sheikhdoon Abdullahi Mohamud was arrested Tuesday and charged with knowingly receiving a firearm and ammunition that he knew or had reason to believe would be used to commit a felony and a federal crime of terrorism — the culmination of a nearly two-year FBI undercover operation.
According to the criminal complaint, the investigation began in December 2024, when Mohamud told a confidential source he wanted to join ISIS or al-Shabaab, both designated foreign terrorist organizations. If he could not travel overseas, he said, he would instead carry out an attack on American soil — specifically the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, one of the largest shopping malls in the country. By mid-2026 he had settled on October 24 as the date, choosing it because a "Hmong Arts Celebration" at the mall would draw large crowds — "a lot of people," the affidavit quotes him saying. He recorded a video pledging allegiance to ISIS and cited previous U.S. mass shootings as examples of the violence he intended.
In September, Mohamud told the FBI source, "I can't wait until I kill kuffar man. October 24 is the day insha Allah," according to the affidavit filed in federal court in Minnesota. The source then arranged a weapons deal: on October 6, Mohamud met in a public park with someone he believed was an ISIS associate but who was actually an undercover FBI employee, and paid $600 for an AK-47-style rifle, four magazines, and about 200 rounds of ammunition. The weapon — described in the filing as a Norinco AK-47 assault rifle, model Mac-90 Sporter, with roughly 200 live rounds of 7.62×39mm ammunition — had been rendered inoperable by investigators before the exchange. Mohamud was arrested moments after walking away from the vehicle with the items. No one was hurt at any point in the operation.
On motive, the complaint says Mohamud was angered by a deadly shooting at a San Diego Islamic center earlier this year, which investigators say fed his turn toward violence. He also allegedly said part of his motivation was that the Mall of America was "owned by Jews." The complaint further states he expressed admiration for the Bondi Beach shooting in Australia and the January 2025 New Orleans attack. All of this is the prosecution's account; the case has not gone to trial, and CNN reports it is still trying to determine whether Mohamud has legal representation.
U.S. Attorney for Minnesota Dan Rosen confirmed the arrest at a Wednesday news conference, with court records unsealed the same day. The charge is a federal terrorism-linked firearms offense — prosecutors allege he received the weapon knowing or having reason to believe it would be used for a federal crime of terrorism. FBI sting cases of this kind reliably revive the entrapment debate: supporters call them a necessary way to stop dangerous people before they act, while critics ask whether the suspect would ever have acted without the undercover push. The courtroom will have to answer that.