Leaders urge to ‘rise above’ recent terror attacks
Somali-American leaders hold a press conference Sunday, Sept. 18, 2016, in St. Cloud, Minn., to address the stabbing and shooting incident that happened Saturday at Crossroads Center Mall. A man in a private security uniform stabbed nine people at a Minnesota shopping mall Saturday, reportedly asking one victim if they were Muslim before an off-duty police officer shot and killed him in an attack the Islamic State group claimed as its own. (Dave Schwarz/St. Cloud Times via AP)
People stand near the entrance on the north side of Crossroads Center mall between Macy's and Target as officials investigate a reported multiple stabbing incident, Saturday, Sept. 17, 2016, in St. Cloud, Minn. Police said multiple people were injured at the St. Cloud shopping mall on Saturday evening in an attack possibly involving both shooting and stabbing. The suspect is believed to be dead, St. Cloud Police Sgt. Jason Burke told the St. Cloud Times. (Dave Schwarz/St. Cloud Times via AP)
Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Center for American-Islamic Relations Minnesota, talks with reporters during a press conference Sunday, Sept. 18, 2016, at Lake George, in St. Cloud, Minn., expressing the Somali-American community reaction to the Crossroads Center attack. (St. Cloud Times/Jason Wachter via AP)
St. Cloud, Minn., Police Chief William Blair Anderson and other officials hold a press conference Sunday, Sept. 18, 2016, giving updated information on the Crossroads Center incident at the St. Cloud Police Department. A man in a private security uniform stabbed nine people at a Minnesota shopping mall Saturday, reportedly asking one victim if they were Muslim before an off-duty police officer shot and killed him in an attack the Islamic State group claimed as its own. (Jason Wachter/St. Cloud Times via AP)
Minnesota Lt. Gov. Tina Smith, from left, Gov. Mark Dayton, St. Cloud Police Chief William Blair Anderson, and St. Cloud Mayor David Kleis hold a press conference after meeting at St. Cloud City Hall Monday, Sept. 19, 2016. Authorities are treating Saturday’s stabbings at Crossroads Mall, as a possible act of terrorism, in part because an Islamic State-run news agency claimed that the attacker was a “soldier of the Islamic State” who had heeded the group’s calls for attacks in countries that are part of a U.S.-led anti-IS coalition. (Leila Navidi/Star Tribune via AP)
Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton listens during a press conference with St. Cloud Mayor David Kleis, left, at St. Cloud City Hall, Monday, Sept. 19, 2016. (Leila Navidi/Star Tribune via AP)
ST. CLOUD, Minn. — One of the victims wounded in a stabbing at a central Minnesota mall says the man who carried out the attack showed no emotion and his eyes looked blank.
Ryan Schliep, one of 10 people who suffered wounds that were not life-threatening before the attacker was fatally shot, told WCCO-TV that the man “just walked right at me” before striking quickly and penetrating the skin of his scalp.
“He looked just blank in the eyes like he wasn’t even there,” Schliep said shortly before being released from a St. Cloud hospital.
Authorities are treating Saturday’s stabbings at Crossroads Center Mall as a possible act of terrorism, in part because an Islamic State-run news agency claimed that the attacker was a “soldier of the Islamic State” who had heeded the group’s calls for attacks in countries that are part of a U.S.-led anti-IS coalition.
But it wasn’t immediately known whether the extremist group had planned the attack or knew about it beforehand. St. Cloud Police Chief Blair Anderson said Monday the attack appeared to be the work of a single individual and there was no sign that the attacker, identified by his father as 20-year-old Dahir Adan, was radicalized or communicated with any terrorist group.
President Barack Obama said the stabbings had no apparent connection to weekend bombings in New York and New Jersey.
Because the suspect was Somali, leaders of the state’s large Somali community acknowledged the prospect of a “long winter” for their people after the stabbings, but warned not to quickly accept the terrorism connection.
“We cannot give ISIS and other terrorist organizations more airtime and propaganda without real facts,” said Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Minnesota chapter.
