Planned gun attack on America's largest mall thwarted 'after teen bought assault rifle'

A planned gun attack on the largest mall in the US was prevented after a teenager was arrested trying to buy an assault rifle, according to officials.

Sheikhdoon Abdullahi Mohamud, 18, was detained on Tuesday in Richfield, Minnesota, several miles away from his alleged target, the Mall of America in Bloomington.

Agents said the teen had been under investigation for nearly two years, during which he was messaging a confidential informant, before they sold him a rifle and ammunition, and arrested him on the spot.

During the exchange, Mohamud allegedly paid $600 (£450) for an AK-47 and 200 rounds of ammunition, giving the money to an undercover FBI employee posing as a member of ISIS.

US Attorney Daniel Rosen, the top federal prosecutor in Minnesota, called Mohamud a "radicalised young man who needed to be watched".

Praising the FBI investigation, he said 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".

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A criminal complaint, setting out the accusations against Mohamud, said he sent messages to an informant repeatedly affirming his intent to carry out an attack on 24 October, targeting non-Muslims.

The document further alleged that Mohamud, a US-born citizen of Somali descent, had sent texts expressing admiration for recent terror attacks as well as an interest in traveling to Somalia to join ISIS.

But he couldn't afford the trip and decided to attack the mall instead, the complaint alleged.

The file said Mohamud started exchanging messages with the informant in December 2024, and agents were concerned enough that, by May 2025, they called at his home, where his father declined to speak with them.

Mr Rosen warned "parents all over Minnesota" that when such steps are taken "those are warnings that ought to be heeded".

(c) Sky News 2026: Planned gun attack on America's largest mall thwarted 'after teen bought assault rifle'