Mall Of America Stabbing: Robber Knives 2, Suspect In Custody

UPDATE: 11:08 p.m. EST — ABC affiliate KSTP-TV reported the Mall of America issued a statement Sunday night saying: "This evening during an interrupted theft inside Macy's Mall of America, two people were stabbed and sustained non-life threatening injuries. One person is in custody and Bloomington Police is conducting the ongoing investigation. Our thoughts are with the families involved."

UPDATE: 10:58 p.m. EST — Multiple news outlets cited the police as saying the suspect, who was taken into custody, was identified as 20-year-old Mahad Abdirahaman of Minneapolis. He was not taken to the hospital for his injuries. Abdirahaman was held on two counts of first-degree assault.

Original story — Two people were stabbed during an attempted robbery in the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota on Sunday, authorities said.

A knife-wielding suspect attempted to rob a customer in a dressing room at the Macy's store and when shopper confronted him, he stabbed the victim, the Star Tribune reported.

“When that happened there was a couple of other members that assisted the victim, they went in there to help, in doing so a second victim sustained a knife wound. The family members were able to disarm the suspect. Our officers arrived and took the suspect into custody,” Bloomington Police Chief Jeff Potts said, while addressing the media.

He said the others who had come to help were from the same group as the victim and he could not immediately clarify if they were family members.

A statement by the department on its Twitter page also announced the unnamed suspect, who was identified as an adult male, was taken into custody.

Both victims had sustained non-life threatening injuries and were taken to Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis, police said and added the suspect may have received superficial wounds.

One witness, Kim Schwieters from Grant, told the Star Tribune she was at the mall with her children and went into Macy’s just as the commotion started.

“We saw two cops running toward Macy’s,” she said. “By the time we got to the main area — the men’s department is to the right — more police started running in with their guns drawn.”

Schwieters added her daughter saw two people on the ground.

“My daughter could see people lying on the ground who had been stabbed.”

The police then asked everyone to clear the area, she said. Schwieters added she talked to a man who might have seen the suspect before the stabbing.

“We saw the man walking through before, talking to himself, really really loudly talking to himself,” she said. “Kind of drew attention to himself.”

This is a developing story.