Sheikhdoon Abdullahi Mohamud arrested for planning ISIS mass shooting.

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MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. (Valley News Live) - Federal prosecutors say an undercover FBI operation stopped a planned mass shooting at the Mall of America, tied to the terrorist organization ISIS, before it could happen, according to a criminal complaint unsealed this week.

Sheikhdoon Abdullahi Mohamud is charged with knowingly receiving a firearm and ammunition with the knowledge they would be used to commit a federal crime of terrorism, according to the complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Minnesota.

According to a supporting affidavit, the FBI began investigating Mohamud in December 2024 after he began exchanging messages with a confidential source about wanting to travel overseas to join ISIS or al-Shabaab, both U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organizations. Over nearly two years, investigators say Mohamud repeatedly discussed wanting to fight abroad, but said that if he could not raise enough money to travel, he would instead carry out an attack in Minnesota on ISIS’s behalf.

By mid-2026, the affidavit says, Mohamud told the source he planned to buy a firearm and carry out a shooting at the Mall of America, eventually settling on Oct. 24, the date of a scheduled Hmong Arts Celebration event at the mall that he said would draw a large crowd. Court documents say Mohamud recorded a video pledging formal allegiance to ISIS and its current leader, and referenced a past U.S. mass shooting as an example of the kind of attack he considered carrying out.

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