ISIS Supporter Weighed Christmastime Attack At Valleyfair, Mall Of America, FBI Says

BLOOMINGTON, MN — Before he settled on a festival at the Mall of America, the Minnesota man accused of plotting an ISIS-inspired mass shooting also considered attacking Valleyfair, according to federal court documents released Wednesday.

Sheikhdoon Abdullahi Mohamud, 18, was arrested at gunpoint Tuesday after paying $600 in cash to an undercover FBI employee for an AK-47 rifle, four 30-round magazines and about 200 rounds of live ammunition. The rifle had been made inert before the sale. He is charged with receiving a firearm and ammunition knowing they would be used to commit a federal crime of terrorism.

An FBI affidavit filed with the criminal complaint lays out nearly two years of messages between Mohamud and a confidential FBI source. It shows how a plan that started with talk of fighting overseas narrowed to places where Minnesota families shop, ride roller coasters and spend their weekends.

In July, after telling the source he couldn't afford to travel to Somalia, Mohamud wrote "so i will do attack here," the affidavit says.

In the same exchange, he said he might buy two pistols online and go to the Mall of America or Valleyfair in Shakopee "on christmas time."

Later that month, Mohamud zeroed in on the Bloomington mall.

He said he wanted to attack it because he believed it was owned by Jews, and he cited the attack on Jewish people at Bondi Beach in Australia, according to the affidavit. He wrote that a bomb was "too complicated" and that he would instead get an assault rifle and "kill maybe 30-60 people."

By September, he had picked a date.

"I can't wait until I kill kuffar man. October 24 is the day insha Allah," Mohamud wrote, according to the affidavit. Kuffar is a derogatory term for non-Muslims.

When the source asked why that day, Mohamud said there would be "a bunch of asians Chinese Vietnamese and other kuffar celebrating" and that "it will be a lot of people," the affidavit says. He then sent a link to the Hmong Arts Celebration scheduled at the mall on Oct. 24.

The affidavit describes other ways he discussed carrying out an attack. In one September message, he wrote that he had watched video of the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando and thought he could do the same thing: "i just walk in and shoot."

In another, he said that if he got stuck in Ohio, he would learn to drive, rent a 4x4 truck and "drive through crowd."

At one point, Mohamud floated asking members of a small online group of ISIS supporters to join him in a shooting or bombing at the mall, but said that if they couldn't, he would carry out the shooting alone, according to the affidavit.

The source repeatedly asked whether he was sure. In September, Mohamud replied that he was "100% commited [sic] to the cause of dying for the sake of Allah only," the affidavit says. On Sept. 29, he told the source, "i am mentally and physically ready."

On Oct. 4, two days before the gun sale, Mohamud sent the source a video of himself counting $601 in cash to show he had the money, according to the affidavit.

Messages cited in the affidavit also show that by March, Mohamud told the source he had quit school.

The FBI tried to reach Mohamud at his home in May 2025. Agents spoke with his mother, and his father told them by phone he did not want to share information about himself or his son and would pass their contact information to his attorney, the affidavit says.

At a news conference Wednesday, U.S. Attorney for Minnesota Daniel Rosen urged parents to take those kinds of contacts seriously.

"If you get the indication, especially if you hear from federal law enforcement, that your son or daughter is being radicalized to the point where federal law enforcement wants to come and give you that warning, those are warnings that ought to be heeded," Rosen said.

Mohamud remains in federal custody.