Federal agents took an 18-year-old Minnesota man into custody after he paid an undercover employee for an AK-47-style rifle, magazines, and live ammunition in a sting that authorities say stopped an ISIS-inspired mass shooting at the Mall of America.
Fox News reported that Sheikhdoon Abdullahi Mohamud, a U.S. citizen born in the United States, faces a federal charge of 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. He remains accused, not convicted. The arrest followed months of encrypted messaging with an FBI confidential source and a controlled weapons buy. No attack occurred, and no injuries were reported.
The case lands at the center of public-safety stakes conservatives watch closely: a high-traffic American mall, a designated foreign terrorist organization, and an alleged plan timed to a crowded event. U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Cowan Wright ordered him temporarily detained after a brief initial appearance. A preliminary and detention hearing is set for Monday, Oct. 19, at 11 a.m. ET.
Investigators with the FBI Minneapolis Field Office opened the case around December 2024. A confidential human source stayed in contact with Mohamud over encrypted messaging and social media. Court papers described months of talk about violence in the name of Islamist groups.
In May, Mohamud allegedly told the source he was "so excited to make hijrah" and wanted to go to Somalia, get married, and "fight the enemies of Allah." He talked about working roughly six weeks to save $2,000 for a plane ticket. By July, he allegedly said he lacked the money to travel and wrote, "so i will do attack here." He later discussed buying two pistols online and going to the Mall of America or the Minnesota State Fair around Christmas.
In September, the tone hardened. He allegedly told the source, "I can’t wait until I kill kuffar man. October 24 is the day insha Allah," and pointed to a "Hmong Arts Celebration" at the mall that would draw "a lot of people." Investigators said he sent a selfie-style video pledging allegiance to ISIS and its leader. He talked about driving "straight to the crowded place and start shooting" with an assault rifle.
On Sept. 25, the source told him a "brother" could sell an AK-style rifle, magazines, and ammunition. Mohamud allegedly said he wanted the weapon fully automatic. On Tuesday, he met an undercover FBI employee he believed was an ISIS-linked contact, paid $600, and took an AK-47-style rifle that agents had rendered inoperable, four magazines, and roughly 200 live rounds. He left the vehicle with the gear in a duffel bag. Agents arrested him at gunpoint.
"Mohamud met with someone he believed to be a loyal member of ISIS to attempt to purchase an AK-47 rifle, knowing it would be used in a felony or federal crime of terrorism,"
Special Agent in Charge Christopher Dotson of FBI Minneapolis said at a Wednesday press conference. Dotson added that Mohamud "planned to use the gun he bought in a high-traffic public area just a few weeks' time in support of a designated foreign terrorist organization."
The Washington Examiner reported that Minnesota’s top federal prosecutor announced Wednesday that the FBI stopped the 18-year-old from carrying out a terrorist attack at the Mall of America in support of ISIS. The outlet described a lengthy sting and an investigation underway since December 2024 against a U.S. citizen of Somali descent.
Breitbart carried additional detail from U.S. Attorney Dan Rosen, who said agents watched a radicalized young man, detected the threat, and disrupted it before he could act. Rosen said the defendant spoke of intending to kill, in his words, maybe 30 to 60 people. That outlet also reported the alleged target date as October 24, 2026, after extended FBI monitoring, and framed the purchase as hundreds of rounds obtained from an undercover employee posing as an ISIS associate.
FBI Director Kash Patel told Fox News Digital that Mohamud "allegedly obtained a weapon he hoped to use in a mass casualty attack in support of ISIS, but this FBI arrested him and put a stop to his plans." Patel pointed to broader disruption numbers his bureau has released: over 1,100 individuals prevented from conducting attacks, over 4,000 foreign terrorist organization related disruptions and arrests, and a 38% increase. He thanked FBI Minneapolis and said the office "likely saved lives."
"We will continue to use every resource we have to detect and prevent acts of terrorism and wipe out their networks all over the country."
Patel’s statement stressed continued pressure on terror networks inside the United States. The charge on file is receipt of the firearm and ammunition with knowledge or reasonable cause to believe they would fuel a felony and federal terrorism crime. Authorities have not publicly confirmed a completed attack plan beyond the communications and the controlled buy described in the affidavit.
Mohamud appeared Wednesday for an eight-minute initial hearing in federal court in Minnesota. Judge Wright ordered temporary detention. He must return Monday, Oct. 19, at 11 a.m. ET for a preliminary and detention hearing. That session will test probable cause and whether he remains locked up pending further proceedings.
Federal law enforcement sources cited in the Fox News account said his parents arrived in the United States through a New York City airport in 2000, that his mother naturalized in 2010, and that his father naturalized in 2017. How they first entered remains unclear in public reporting. Mohamud himself is described as American-born.
Investigators will need to determine the full scope of any remaining contacts, whether other targets were under active discussion, and how the alleged ISIS pledge video fits the charging theory. No public results have been released about additional weapons caches or co-conspirators. The rifle he received was inoperable by design; the ammunition was live.
President Donald Trump told reporters Wednesday he had heard about the case. "I did hear about it. And they did a great job. The FBI did a great job," he said. House Speaker Mike Johnson, speaking in Mason, Michigan, called the disruption another example of how important law enforcement is. "What would happen if that 18-year-old had made it into that mall? It would have been a very different outcome," Johnson said, praising the officers involved and praying for their safety.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz posted on X that he was "Grateful for the swift and professional action to keep Minnesotans safe," and called it "exactly the kind of threat we need federal law enforcement working to prevent" in a more dangerous world. The Mall of America issued its own statement thanking the FBI and partners "for their vigilance and extraordinary investigative work in identifying, disrupting and removing this threat and protecting the community we all share."
Dotson’s press conference framed the buy as proof of intent tied to a designated foreign terrorist organization. The mall statement underscored continued cooperation with law enforcement. None of those remarks resolve the criminal case. Guilt remains a question for the court.
The affidavit narrative moves from overseas ambitions to a domestic strike once travel money dried up. Early talk focused on joining al-Shabaab in Somalia. Later messages shifted to an attack "here," then to a specific October 24 date tied to a crowded mall celebration he called a "kuffar festival." He allegedly discussed an assault-rifle approach: drive in and open fire in a packed area.
That sequence is why the controlled purchase mattered. Agents did not wait for a public shooting. They let him complete a transaction he believed advanced the plot, then moved in when he walked away with the bag. The inoperable rifle removed the immediate firepower risk while preserving the evidence of intent alleged in the charge.
Authorities have not publicly confirmed whether a Hmong Arts Celebration was independently verified as scheduled for that date, or whether other venues remained under discussion after the September messages. The Minnesota State Fair appeared earlier in the chats as a possible Christmas-season target alongside the mall. Those threads now sit inside the federal file.
Prosecutors did not need a completed massacre to act. The statute path described in the reporting targets receipt of a gun and ammo with knowledge or reasonable cause to believe they would be used in a felony and a federal terrorism crime. The undercover sale, the duffel bag exit, the alleged ISIS pledge, and the mall-specific messages form the spine of that theory.
Temporary detention keeps him off the street while the detention hearing tests risk and flight. The short Wednesday appearance was procedural, not a trial. Monday’s session will set the near-term custody fight. Beyond that, the case will turn on how cleanly the government can prove knowledge, purpose, and the terrorism nexus alleged in the papers.
Public officials from both parties praised the stop. Trump and Johnson highlighted the FBI’s work. Walz stressed prevention. The mall thanked the agents who removed the threat. Those statements do not replace evidence. They do show why a crowded retail landmark remains a soft-target concern when radical messaging turns into a weapons buy.
Law-and-order is not a slogan when an 18-year-old allegedly picks a mall calendar date and tries to arm up for ISIS. Institutions either detect that early or the public pays later. The agents closed this one before the doors opened.
