St. Cloud leaders praised the quick actions of an off-duty police officer who shot a suspect multiple times to end a stabbing rampage that wounded nine people at a shopping mall and was being investigated Sunday as possible terrorism.

Jason Falconer, a part-time police officer in the nearby small town of Avon, shot the suspect multiple times Saturday night when the man lunged at him with what appeared to be a “kitchen-type” knife, St. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis said after watching store surveillance video of the incident.

None of the nine people who were stabbed in Saturday night’s attack received life-threatening wounds, St. Cloud police Chief Blair Anderson said. He said it doesn’t appear that anyone else was involved in the attack at the Crossroads Center in St. Cloud, which began at around 8 p.m. and was over within minutes.

At a news conference Sunday, FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Rick Thornton said the attack was being investigated as a possible act of terrorism and that agents were still digging into the attacker’s background and possible motives.

The suspect entered the Crossroads Center mall about 8 p.m. armed with a knife and wearing a private security uniform. He reportedly made references to Allah during the assaults and asked at least one of the victims whether they were Muslim, according to St. Cloud Police Chief William Blair Anderson.

The St. Cloud Times reported that St. Cloud Somali-American community members identified the suspect as Dahir Adan.

Kleis said the suspect got up three times and tried to attack Falconer, who fired his weapon repeatedly, eventually killing the man.

“To me, watching it, it looks like a training video for what law enforcement should do,” Kleis said, calling Falconer “clearly a hero.”

Falconer “just happened to be in the right place at the right time,” Kleis said. “Truly, if not for his actions, things would have been worse.”

At a news conference Sunday, FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Rick Thornton said the attack was being investigated as a possible act of terrorism and that agents were still digging into the attacker’s background and possible motives.

An Islamic State-run news agency, Rasd, claimed Sunday that the attacker was a “soldier of the Islamic State” who had heeded the group’s calls for attacks in countries that are part of a U.S.-led anti-IS coalition.

It was not immediately clear if the extremist group had planned the attack or even knew about it beforehand. IS has encouraged so-called “lone wolf” attacks. It has also claimed past attacks that are not believed to have been planned by its central leadership.

Community leader Abdul Kulane said the family and community did not know Adan to have a history of violence. He was a junior in college and worked part-time as a private security officer, community leaders told the St. Cloud Times.

The newspaper said Adan told his family that he was going to the mall to buy an iPhone 7, and they last saw him about 6 or 6:30 p.m. Saturday.

A spokesman for St. Cloud State University confirmed that Adan was a student there, but has not been enrolled since the spring semester. Spokesman Adam Hammer said Adan’s intended major was information systems, which is a computer-related field.

He said police told him at around 9 p.m. Saturday that his son had died at the mall, and that police had raided the family’s apartment, seizing photos and other materials. He said police said nothing to him about the mall attack, and that he had “no suspicion” that his son had been involved in terrorist activity, the newspaper reported.

Anderson said police had had three previous encounters with the attacker, mostly for minor traffic violations.

According to Anderson, the attacker, dressed in a security uniform and wielding what appeared to be a kitchen knife, began attacking people right after entering the mall, stabbing people in several spots inside the building, including corridors, businesses and common areas.

SOMALI COMMUNITY CONDEMNS ATTACK

Leaders of the Somali community in central Minnesota united to condemn the stabbings. They said the suspect does not represent the larger Somali community, and they expressed fear about backlash over the attack.

“The Central Minnesota Somali community is in distress, and we are afraid of the consequences of this incident,” Mahmoud Mohamed, a St. Cloud-area Muslim said at a news conference Sunday.

“We would like to say, loud, that our community in central Minnesota has no relationship with ISIS or other any other Islamic terrorist group.”

“They are minorities in our faith,” he said of those who perpetuate violence in the name of Islam. “They are misusing our faith. Islam is peace.”

Minnesota has the nation’s largest Somali community, with census numbers placing the population at about 40,000, but community activists say the population — most of it in the Minneapolis area — is much higher. The immigrant community has been a target for terror recruiters in recent years. More than 20 young men have left the state since 2007 to join al-Shabab in Somalia, and roughly a dozen people have left in recent years to join militants in Syria. In addition, nine Minnesota men face sentencing on terror charges for plotting to join the Islamic State group.

The attack in St. Cloud began shortly after an explosion in a crowded New York City neighborhood injured 29 people. A suspicious device was found a few blocks away and safely removed. Hours before that, a pipe bomb exploded in Seaside Park, N.J., shortly before thousands of runners were due to participate in a charity 5K race. There was no immediate indication that the incidents were linked.

The mall remained closed Sunday. Of the nine victims — seven men, a woman and a 15-year-old girl — three remained hospitalized, officials said.

Photos and video of the mall taken hours after the incident showed groups of shoppers waiting to be released, including some huddled together near a food court entrance.

Harley and Tama Exsted, of Isle, were in St. Cloud to watch their son play in a college golf tournament and were in the mall when the attack happened.

“All of a sudden I heard pop, pop, pop,” Harley Exsted told the St. Cloud Times. “I thought someone tipped over a shelf. All of a sudden these people started running. I just saw everybody running our way.”

The couple were unharmed and said they helped another woman who was running from the scene to her car.

Falconer, who was shopping when he confronted the attacker, is the former police chief in Albany, which is about 15 miles northwest of St. Cloud, and the president and owner of a firing range and firearms training facility, according to his LinkedIn profile. His profile says he focuses on firearms and permit-to-carry training, and also teaches “decision shooting” to law enforcement students at St. Cloud State University.

WITNESSES’ REACTIONS

Harley and Tama Exsted, of Isle, were in St. Cloud to watch their son play in a college golf tournament and were in the mall when the attack happened.

“All of a sudden I heard pop, pop, pop,” Harley Exsted told the St. Cloud Times. “I thought someone tipped over a shelf. All of a sudden these people started running. I just saw everybody running our way.”

The couple were unharmed and said they helped another woman who was running from the scene to her car.

Also at the mall were three college freshmen who saw two bloodied men stumble from a hallway.

Sydney Weires says she was at Crossroads Center mall with two friends Saturday night when they heard a scream. She says she saw a man who looked like a security guard sprint down a hallway, and then two men stumbled out.

She says one had blood on his face, and the other had blood on his back. The men screamed to get out of the mall because someone had a knife.

Weires says she and her friends ran out of the mall.

Adonis Samuels, 42, of St. Cloud, was outside the mall where his wife, Roxanne, works as a manager at Clinique at Macy’s.

“She called me on the phone and told me she was hiding under the counter with a customer,” Samuels said. She later called and said she was safe in a secured area.

Samuels remained outside, watching for her. He said he’d seen her through the glass doors at one point so he knew she was safe.