A spate of weekend attacks that may be tied to terrorism flooded news headlines on Monday morning.
First, there was an explosion on the route of a charity race in Seaside Park, New Jersey on Saturday morning. No injuries were reported since the road was empty at the time of the blast. Later that day, nine people were stabbed at a mall by a man with a kitchen knife in St. Cloud, Minnesota, about an hour and a half outside of the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.
An off-duty police officer shot and killed the attacker, who entered the mall dressed as a security guard. He’s been identified as 22-year-old Dahir Adan, a Somali-American who was going to college in St. Cloud and working for a private security firm. Fortunately, none of the victims’ injuries appear to be life-threatening. A media outlet linked to the Islamic State says Adan was acting on behalf of the militant group.
Around the same time of the Minnesota attack, a pressure cooker bomb exploded in the Manhattan neighborhood of Chelsea, injuring 29 people. Several more explosive devices were found in Manhattan and Elizabeth, New Jersey, where the suspect in those bombings was arrested this morning after a shootout with police. He has been identified as Ahmad Rahami, a 28-year-old U.S. citizen of Afghan descent. Police in New York and New Jersey believe Rahami is connected to the devices found in both states.
While New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio called the attack ‘intentional,’ but stopped short of labeling it terrorism.
Guests:
Craig McCarthy, reporter for New Jersey Advance Media, which includes NJ.com and The Star-Ledger, New Jersey’s largest daily newspaper; he is in Elizabeth, NJ today covering the arrest of the bombing suspect; he tweets
Tim Nelson, reporter for Minnesota Public Radio news who has been covering the attack at the Crossroads Center Mall in St. Cloud (St. Cloud is about an hour and a half Northwest of Minneapolis-St. Paul); he tweets
Colin P. Clarke, political scientist at the Rand Corporation whose research focuses on terrorism and insurgency; he tweets