{"id":274117,"date":"2023-07-21T13:42:03","date_gmt":"2023-07-21T18:42:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=274117"},"modified":"2023-07-21T15:03:09","modified_gmt":"2023-07-21T20:03:09","slug":"gun-man-used-web-for-kill-fast-crowded-area-events","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=274117","title":{"rendered":"Gun Man Was Plotting For Crowded Area Event"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-full is-resized\"><a href=\"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/BarakatMohamad.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/BarakatMohamad.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-274120\" width=\"217\" height=\"143\" srcset=\"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/BarakatMohamad.jpg 455w, https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/BarakatMohamad-300x198.jpg 300w, https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/BarakatMohamad-265x175.jpg 265w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 217px) 100vw, 217px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>(KFGO) \u2014 The man who shot three Fargo police officers and a civilian, killing one of the officers before an officer killed him, searched the internet for terms including \u201cexplosive ammo\u201d and \u201ckill fast,\u201d as well as for what crowded area events might be happening in and around North Dakota\u2019s largest city, authorities said Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mohamad Barakat, 37, was apparently driven by hatred and wanting to kill, and didn\u2019t seem to be particular about which group or individual he might target, state Attorney General Drew Wrigley <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/CRXjreRl71M?t=184\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/CRXjreRl71M?t=184\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">said during a video news conference.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the day of the attack, July 14, Barakat loaded his car with guns, a homemade grenade, gasoline canisters and more than 1,800 rounds of ammunition, authorities said. About 2 miles from his home, he came across a fender bender and pulled into a nearby parking lot to watch from his vehicle, authorities said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He moved his car into another parking lot and then appeared to leave the scene, but minutes later his car returned to the initial parking lot, and parked in a spot that faced the crash scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Fargo Shooter Pictured, More Info About Shooting Timeline | ND A.G. Drew Wrigley Conference | KFGO\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/CRXjreRl71M?start=184&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Barakat watched for several minutes while police and firefighters responded to the crash. Just after 3:00 p.m., three Fargo police officers walked in the direction of his vehicle, which was parked next to one of the cars that had been involved in the crash and had been moved to clear the street. Investigators believe the officers were approaching to take reports from the occupants of that vehicle, who were standing outside the car at the time, taking photos of the crash damage with their cell phones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was then that Barakat raised a .223-caliber rifle out of his open car window and began firing, Wrigley said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The rifle had a \u201cbinary trigger\u201d that allowed it to fire so rapidly that it acted and sounded like a fully automatic weapon, the attorney general said. The three officers who were shot had no time to react and fell in rapid succession.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The fourth officer at the scene, Zach Robinson, then engaged Barakat in a shootout.&nbsp;Barakat\u2019s attention was distracted when the driver of the other vehicle involved in the crash, 25-year-old Karlee Koswick, moved to get away from gunfire. Wrigley said it was at that moment that Robinson took aim at Barakat and shot him, also hitting the gun he was holding and disabling it.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Officials say Barakat then rearmed with a 9mm handgun he had on him. Surveillance footage appears to show him attempting to load a clip into the gun while waving it. Robinson\u2019s body cam recorded him instructing Barakat to put his hands up and drop the gun 16 times. The two minute-long shootout ended&nbsp;with Robinson shooting and killing Barakat as bystanders crouched nearby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wrigley said he believes the violence could have been the beginning of a bigger attack, as the Downtown Fargo Street Fair and the Red River Valley Fair were underway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He said Robinson was the \u201clast man standing\u201d between Barakat and the \u201chorrible events\u201d he\u2019d planned that day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Barakat killed Officer Jake Wallin, 23, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan with the Minnesota Army National Guard, and wounded Officers Andrew Dotas and Tyler Hawes. Wallin and Hawes were so new that they were still undergoing field training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Barakat was a Syrian national who came to the U.S. on an asylum request in 2012 and became a U.S. citizen in 2019, Wrigley said, adding that he didn\u2019t appear to have any ties to the Muslim community in Fargo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Barakat\u2019s internet searches about causing mayhem date back to 2018, and there were periods in which his searches abated before picking back up. He had amassed his arsenal in recent years, the attorney general said. At this stage in the investigation, it seems all of his weapons were purchased legally, and he had many of them in his car on the day of the shooting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wrigley said Barakat was wearing a vest that was \u201cabsolutely stuffed\u201d with magazines and that he \u201cwas putting the finishing touches on his shooting skills in the last hours before this assault.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Barakat had worked odd jobs, and briefly trained as an emergency responder at a nearby community college. He had no criminal record or social media presence and had little contact with other people, Wrigley said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The wounded are recovering, their conditions good or stable, authorities said. Fargo Police Chief Dave Zibolski said both of the hospitalized officers had \u201cmiraculously\u201d stood up for the first time on Thursday.&nbsp; Wrigley said Koswick was badly wounded and will have a difficult recovery. Meanwhile, a funeral service is planned for Saturday for Wallin, whose body was cremated in his police uniform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>KFGO NEWS reporter Tasha Carvell contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(KFGO) \u2014 The man who shot three Fargo police officers and a civilian, killing one of the officers before an officer killed him, searched the internet for terms including \u201cexplosive ammo\u201d and \u201ckill fast,\u201d as well as for what crowded area events might be happening in and around North Dakota\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":274120,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-274117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=274117"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":274139,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274117\/revisions\/274139"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/274120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=274117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=274117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=274117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}