Federal agents arrested an 18-year-old Minnesota man after he bought a rifle from an undercover operative in an alleged ISIS mass-shooting plot at the Mall of America, a disruption officials say likely saved lives.
Sheikhdoon Abdullahi Mohamud, a U.S.-born citizen from Minnesota’s Twin Cities, was taken into custody at gunpoint Tuesday after he paid $600 for an AK-47-style rifle, four magazines, and roughly 200 rounds of ammunition he believed came from an ISIS-linked “brother.” The seller was an undercover FBI employee. The rifle had been rendered inoperable; the ammunition was live.
Fox News reported that 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. Court papers describe months of talk about pledging to ISIS, killing nonbelievers, and driving into a crowded public place to open fire.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Cowan Wright ordered him temporarily detained after an eight-minute initial hearing Wednesday. A preliminary and detention hearing was set for Monday, Oct. 19, at 11 a.m. ET.
The case is another hard reminder that jihadist radicalization still finds targets inside the United States, including young men born here, and that aggressive federal work is what stands between online rage and body counts at places families actually go.
The FBI’s Minneapolis investigation started around December 2024 and used a confidential human source who stayed in contact with Mohamud over encrypted messaging and social media. By May, according to the affidavit described in coverage, he said he was “so excited to make hijrah,” wanted to go to Somalia, get married, and “fight the enemies of Allah,” and planned to work about six weeks to save $2,000 for a plane ticket.
By July he allegedly admitted he lacked the money to travel and wrote, “so i will do attack here.” He discussed buying pistols online and hitting the Mall of America or the Minnesota State Fair around Christmas. The file shows a shift from overseas fantasy to a domestic massacre plan.
In September, Mohamud allegedly told the source he could not wait.
Christopher Dotson, special agent in charge of the FBI Minneapolis Field Office, laid out the core allegation at a Wednesday press conference.
"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,"
Dotson also said 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.”
September messages cited in court papers were blunter still. Mohamud allegedly wrote: “I can’t wait until I kill kuffar man. October 24 is the day insha Allah.” Asked why that date, he pointed to a Hmong Arts Celebration at the Mall of America and said it would have “a lot of people.” He talked about driving “straight to the crowded place and start shooting,” and he allegedly sent a selfie-style video pledging allegiance to ISIS and its leader.
On Sept. 25, the source told him a “brother” could sell an AK-style rifle, magazines, and ammunition. Mohamud indicated he wanted the weapon fully automatic. That set up the Tuesday undercover buy and the arrest as he left the vehicle with a duffel bag holding the gun and ammo.
Supporting coverage fills in the body-count talk the affidavit attributed to him. The Washington Examiner reported that Minnesota’s top federal prosecutor announced the FBI had stopped the 18-year-old from carrying out a terrorist attack at the mall in support of ISIS after the long-running probe.
Breitbart reported he had been monitored for nearly two years, obtained the rifle and hundreds of rounds from the undercover employee posing as an ISIS associate, and planned the October 24, 2026, attack while wanting to kill as many as 60 people. U.S. Attorney Dan Rosen’s assessment was direct.
"This was a radicalized young man who needed to be watched. [Agents] were able to detect a threat, and disrupt it, before the defendant carried out his intention to kill, in his words, maybe 30 to 60 people."
The New York Post reported additional message traffic in which Mohamud wrote he would “just go grab assault rifle bomb is too complicated kill maybe 30-60 people insha Allah and have 260 ammo,” paid $600 for a Norinco AK-47 and 200 rounds before the arrest in a public park, and framed the mall attack in antisemitic terms, including talk of harming Jews and a belief the mall was Jewish-owned, while referencing other attacks. The paper also described nearly two years of informant contact on platforms including TikTok and Signal and his earlier interest in joining ISIS or al-Shabaab.
Just the News likewise described the Tuesday rifle sale and immediate arrest, the December 2024 start of informant contact about al-Shabaab and a mall attack, and the plan to kill 30 to 60 non-Muslims during the Hmong arts celebration. Rosen warned parents nationwide that if federal law enforcement flags radicalization in a son or daughter, those warnings “ought to be heeded.”
That is the practical line responsible adults should draw: tip lines and federal follow-up are not optional when a teenager starts talking jihad and body counts.
FBI Director Kash Patel told Fox News Digital the suspect “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 cast the Minnesota case as part of a wider tempo.
"Once again, this FBI is moving more effectively than we ever have before at stopping terrorists before they can attack Americans, with over 1,100 individuals prevented from conducting attacks, over 4,000 foreign terrorist organization related disruptions and arrests, a 38% increase, and more,"
He thanked FBI Minneapolis for work that “likely saved lives” and said the bureau would keep using every resource to detect terrorism and dismantle networks. President Donald Trump, asked Wednesday, said he had heard about the case and that “the FBI did a great job.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, speaking in Mason, Michigan, after a question from Fox News, called the thwarted mall attack another example of why law enforcement matters and asked what would have happened if the 18-year-old had made it inside. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz posted that he was grateful for “swift and professional action” and that preventing this kind of threat should remain a federal priority.
The Mall of America said it was grateful to 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,” and called safety its highest priority while continuing to work with law enforcement.
Similar FBI arrests of Minnesota teens in ISIS-linked mall plots underscore how often these cases now turn on online radicalization caught before the first shot.
Mohamud is an 18-year-old U.S. citizen born in the United States. Multiple federal law enforcement sources told Fox News Digital his parents were Somali nationals who later naturalized, the mother in 2010, the father in 2017, after arriving through a New York City airport in 2000. Whether that entry was as refugees or on visas was not clear in the reporting.
None of that biography is a crime. The affidavit allegations are: an ISIS pledge video, months of attack talk, a chosen date tied to a crowded cultural event, and a cash buy for a rifle he thought would be used in a terrorism felony. Citizenship does not immunize anyone from federal terrorism statutes when the evidence shows a plan to murder civilians for a designated foreign terrorist organization.
Readers tracking related Minnesota ISIS pledge and shooting-plot coverage will see the same core sequence, informant contact, weapons sting, and a charging decision built on the defendant’s own words.
Domestic ISIS cases are not theoretical. The bureau has also moved on alleged ISIS-inspired bomb plots against government targets, including cases built from social-media pipelines into real-world planning. The through-line is early detection, not press conferences after funerals.
Background on how online messaging can pull people into foreign terror brands, and how those threads turn into concrete plots, also shows up in reporting on an Albany woman who joined ISIS through social media then allegedly plotted a Capitol bombing. Different defendant, same digital on-ramp problem.
Separate FBI work has even reached into federal workplaces, including a case in which agents charged an Energy Department engineer with aiding Iran-backed Houthis. When terror-linked support networks touch American soil, the only serious response is investigation and arrest, not wishful thinking about “lone actors” who somehow never needed watching.
The operative charge is not a vague “hate” label. It is 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. The undercover buy, $600, AK-style rifle, four magazines, about 200 rounds, is the act prosecutors tied to that mental state, backed by the September pledge video and the October 24 targeting talk.
Authorities controlled the gun side of the deal. The rifle was inoperable when it changed hands; the ammunition was not. Agents arrested Mohamud as he left with the duffel. No executed attack, no reported civilian injuries from a shooting that never happened, because the sting closed first.
Open questions remain in the public file as reported: the full docket number and precise statutory cites were not spelled out in the initial wave of coverage; counsel statements and any plea posture beyond the detention order were not detailed; and the exact calendar date of the Tuesday arrest sat in relative “this week” framing in some accounts even as October hearing dates were firm. Those gaps do not erase the affidavit narrative already on the table.
For shoppers who use the Mall of America, the sequence is simpler. An 18-year-old allegedly picked a busy cultural event, talked about killing dozens of “kuffar,” pledged to ISIS, and showed up with cash for a rifle. The FBI had been on him since late 2024, ran a confidential source, and ended the plot at the point of sale.
Lawful residents and taxpayers should expect exactly that standard, watch lists that mean something, undercover work that finishes the job, and prosecutors who treat jihadist mass-casualty talk as a crime plan, not a cry for services. Soft-pedaling radicalization in the name of sensitivity is how crowded atriums become crime scenes.
Stop the plot early, charge the conduct, and keep the mall a place for families instead of a target list for the next recruit who thinks October 24 is a holy date for murder.
