Family: St. Cloud Mall Suspect Was Picking Up iPhone
ST. CLOUD, Minn. (WCCO) -- WCCO's Esme Murphy spoke with a top community leader who has been working with the family of Dahir Adan since Saturday night.
Haji Yussuf, the founder of the anti-Islamophobia group Unite Cloud, said that Adan left his family apartment to go pick up his new preordered iPhone at the T-Mobile store inside the mall.
"He went out to get an iPhone. He was very happy, he was joyful leaving home," Yussuf said.
He says Adan left the apartment he shared with his father at about 7 p.m. He drove to the mall which is less than half a mile away.
"While he was at the mall, the family doesn't know what happened. But what they know is, between the time he left his home and they knew what he was going to do and going to the mall, in between they don't know what happened," Yussuf said.
Employees at the T-Mobile store in the mall declined to comment and referred WCCO to national T-Mobile media representatives.
Adan's family says he was born in Kenya and came to the U.S. 15 years ago. He was a 2014 graduate of St. Cloud Apollo High School where he did well enough to earn college credit in some classes.
The security firm Securitas issued a statement that Adan had resigned in June of 2016 from his part-time security job with them and that he had been assigned to the St. Cloud company Electrolux Home Products.
The family says he was currently working as a security guard at Capital One in downtown St. Cloud and that he was enrolled as a student at St. Cloud State. But St. Cloud State said he had been enrolled between 2014 and the spring of 2016 and was no longer enrolled there. Late Monday, Capital One said that after a review of company records, Adan had never worked there.
Yussuf says the family can't understand what happened between the time he left and the time he stabbed nine people and was gunned down by an off duty officer inside the Macy's store.
Mayor Dave Kleis has seen the security footage that he says shows Adan's final moments.
"He had identified himself as a police officer, he made a command, the suspect went down and then immediately came forward, lunged at him with a knife," Kleis said. "There must have been more than 20 feet but he covered it in a matter of a second and then the officer fired."
The mayor says the video shows Adan getting him up three times and the officer continuing to fire.
And while we have heard numerous victims say Adan was shouting "God is great" in Arabic and demanding to know if shoppers were Muslim or not, the family told Yussuf he was not particularly religious and that they did not know of any ties he had to ISIS or radical groups.
According to Yussuf the family is going over the security video with authorities to try and determine what happened inside the mall right before the stabbing started.
Adan's family released a statement Monday:
"We are devastated by incomprehensible tragic event of last Saturday evening.
"As we mourn the death of our son, Dahir Adan, who was very dear to us, we are in deep shock as everyone else is in the State of Minnesota. We express our deepest sympathy and condolences to all those injured and others who were impacted as a result of the incident at the Crossroads Mall. We pray for their speedy recovery.
"As a family, we are committed to fully cooperating, within the limits of the law, with all the relevant law enforcement agencies as they conduct their investigation.
"Our family loves St. Cloud and this State and we are integral part of the fabric of this society. Therefore, we urge citizens of St. Cloud and of this State to stay united and let the law enforcement agencies gather the facts and do their job.
"Finally, we urge all not to rush to judgement or conclusions. We ask everyone to respect our privacy during this difficult time. We will make further statements as more facts about the incident become available."