Mohamad Barakat, who moved to the US in 2012 as an asylum seeker, was on his way to carry out an attack in Fargo at a parade on July 14 when he opened fire on police officers responding to a car crash, killing one, and critically injuring two of them.
Daily Mail (h/t Nita) Barakat was armed with an AK-47, 1,800 rounds of ammunition, a grenade and enough explosives to obliterate a crowd in what would have been a catastrophic domestic terrorist attack last month had it not been thwarted.
Neither the FBI nor the Department of Homeland Security has confirmed whether or not Barakat was on any kind of watchlist.
The day before the shooting, he Googled: ‘area events where there are crowds’ which led him to an article about the Downtown Fargo Street Fair. He’d also Googled ‘explosive ammo’, ‘incendiary rounds’ and ‘mass shooting events’.
In his two-minute rampage, Barakat killed 23-year-old rookie cop Jake Wallin, an Afghanistan and Iraq veteran who’d only been on the job for three months, and critically injured two others before being shot dead by 32-year-old Officer Zach Robinson.
The full details of the terrifying incident emerged yesterday at a press conference where North Dakota officials also released Officer Robinson’s bodycam footage.
Robinson, coming under fire himself, shot Barakat 31 times in total. The gunman somehow survived the majority of the shots and continued to reach for his weapon before eventually being taken out.
The planned attack, had he been able to carry it out, would have been so deadly that North Dakota officials say there wouldn’t have been enough medical and emergency personnel in three states to respond to it adequately.
In addition to the weapons in his car, Barakat also three cannisters of gasoline and two propane tanks filled with Tannerite – a highly explosive material.
Before the incident, he had no criminal record but police had visited his home to inquire about his weapons twice. They found them to have all been legally acquired.
Little is known of Barakat, who had no social media presence and worked odd jobs in Fargo and surrounding areas. At one time, he worked at Fleet Farm, a firearms store in Fargo. He also frequented gun ranges and was seen there in the hours before the shooting on July 14.
It’s unclear if he had a family before or after he moved to the US, and federal immigration officials are yet to share details of his political asylum application. Before Tuesday’s incident, his only crime or infraction was a speeding ticket.
North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley said there was a ‘suggestion’ he may have been on an FBI Guardian list. The lists allow federal and state law enforcement to report terror suspects to the FBI and monitor whether or not an individual is under investigation. The FBI has not yet confirmed that he was on such a list.
BLR says
North Dakota has a problem ! Ongoing in turn we in MT have a problem overflow from the “planed” dense breeding ground of anti american muslims imported to Minnesota by we all know who … this post by yours truly is useless without the answer to the problem … lead
The Tasmanian Devil says
How stupid, uninformed and obtuse our lawmakers are!
What is it about two toppled buildings, 3,000 dead people, and four hijacked airplanes that they don’t get about the cancer of Islam and plague of Muslim locusts?
https://politics.americarockin.com/2023/08/17/watch-what-happens-when-a-somali-muslima-piece-of-shit-curses-america/
Classy Infidel says
He should have shot him straight between the two legs, into the ball area. The heroic cop had a clear shot at this in the video. Islam’s paradise with no manhood is pure misery for a muslim.