FBI arrests Minnesota teenager accused of plotting Islamic State attack on Mall of America

Undercover sting and arrest

Federal law enforcement agents arrested 18-year-old Sheikhdoon Abdullahi Mohamud on Tuesday in a public park in Richfield, Minnesota. The operation concluded an undercover sting in which Mohamud paid $600 in cash to an FBI operative posing as a member of Islamic State. In return, the operative supplied the teenager with an AK-47 assault rifle and 200 rounds of ammunition. Mohamud had told the undercover employee that he considered himself an active member of the terrorist organization. Agents moved in immediately after the transaction in the park, which is situated several miles northwest of the Mall of America.

When the F.B.I. receives credible evidence indicating someone is seeking to carry out a violent attack, we unremittingly pursue the threat to protect our communities.

Target and operational plans

Court documents detail that Mohamud planned to conduct an armed assault on 24 October at the Mall of America in Bloomington. The shopping complex, which features more than 500 stores and ranks as the largest in the United States, was scheduled to host an arts festival celebrating the Southeast Asian Hmong community on that date. Mohamud explained in monitored communications that he selected the mall because he believed it was owned by Jewish people, repeatedly affirming his intention to kill non-Muslim visitors. In text messages cited by prosecutors, the suspect wrote that if he killed even 30 people, nobody would ever return to the shopping center. Investigators stated that he had also evaluated the Valleyfair amusement park in Shakopee as an alternative location for a mass-casualty attack.

Long-term federal investigation

Federal investigators had monitored Mohamud for nearly two years, opening an inquiry in December 2024 when he began messaging a confidential informant on social media and encrypted messenger apps. Across hundreds of messages, Mohamud expressed admiration for past extremist attacks and discussed traveling abroad to join Islamic State or the Somalia-based militant group al-Shabaab. By the middle of 2026, he told the informant that international travel was financially out of reach and pivoted toward planning a domestic attack. In May 2025, federal agents had attempted an in-person intervention by visiting the family home. Mohamud's mother told agents that her son had not yet returned from school, and his father subsequently refused to speak with investigators, directing them to an attorney.

Legal proceedings and federal charges

On Wednesday, Mohamud appeared before a federal judge in St. Paul dressed in yellow detention clothing. Federal prosecutors charged the Minnesota-born United States citizen of Somali descent with attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization and purchasing a weapon to carry out an act of terrorism. FBI Director Kash Patel and U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen praised the field work of the Minneapolis division for thwarting the plan before any weapons could be deployed.

This was a radicalized young man who needed to be watched.