It’s a pretty good bet that unless you live in or around Fargo, North Dakota you didn’t hear about the terrorist attack foiled by police there on July 14 this year. Rookie officer Jake Wallin was killed by Mohamad Barakat. Barakat wounded two police officers and a woman bystander before being killed by another officer, Zach Robinson. The spokesperson for the city known as the Gateway to the West is being mighty obtuse and cagey about Barakat’s motive for having 1800 rounds of ammunition in his car.
For most Americans, our sum total knowledge about Fargo is from the movie Fargo. Sheriff Marge Gunderson might have had a clue about Barakat’s motive, right? Especially given the clues.
Unless you are a clueless Attorney General, that is. Here is what North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley said in his press conference:
“That such events could transpire in the wake of a fender bender, a fender bender in Fargo, North Dakota,” said Wrigley.
Well, who would guess some rando with an SUV would cause a mass casualty event in Waukesha, Wisconsin at a Christmas Parade? Wake, the heck, up! Where on Earth do they find these nimrods?
That Friday afternoon in Fargo there was a Downtown Street Fair. There was a fender-bender in an area outside of the Street Fair. Barakat was, presumably on his way to the street fair, but was stymied by the minor car accident. We’ll let Fox 9 take the story from here:
When he came upon a fender bender last Friday afternoon, Barakat was armed with multiple weapons, explosives and grenades and had spray painted the back windows of his car.
“Based on the time and the direction he was going he was either likely to be taking a right when he got to main avenue going downtown and taking a left when he got to main avenue and going to the fairgrounds,” Wrigley said.
Video footage reveals he came upon the crash, circling and casing the scene for about 15 minutes before parking his car and opening fire, killing 23-year-old officer Jake Wallin and critically injuring officers Andrew Dotas and officer Tyler Hawes, as well as, civilian Karlee Koswick (who was involved in the initial car accident).
Barakat was eventually shot by officer Zach Robinson and later died at the hospital.
Back it up there, spray painted the back window of his car, wow, but let’s talk about the multiple weapons part. This guy was looking to take out a lot of people:
Once Mohamed Barakat was taken down, the bomb squad was called in for searches of the suspect vehicle and residence. Wrigley says the bomb squad K9 hit on the vehicle and at Barakat’s apartment. Investigators say the following items were found inside the vehicle at the scene of the shooting: 3 containers fill with gas, 2 propane tanks filled with homemade explosives, a homemade grenade, 4 semi-automatic handguns and 3 semi-automatic long rifles. The gun used to shoot the officers and civilian had a binary trigger.
A search warrant was obtained for Barakat’s residence and the FBI was on standby to execute the search of his apartment. Wrigley says they discovered two shotguns, a Remington deer rifle, a .223 rifle, handguns, live ammunition, a variety of grenade parts, several trail cameras, several phones and a computer.
Forensics experts with the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation say Mohamed Barakat has no social media presence and appears to have had very little interaction with people. Wrigley and the U.S. Attorney for the District of North Dakota both said, they have no evidence at this time that indicates a further threat to the community.
Many, many of the articles I read were hyperventilating over the binary trigger. Heck I might need a binary trigger
:What is a binary trigger? An aftermarket trigger for semi-automatic guns that allows one round to be fired upon the trigger pull and a single round to be fired as the trigger springs back AKA binary shooting or double tap. The binary trigger will enable you to shoot twice as fast with the same amount of work, making for a fun but short day at the range or shooting practice.
Many people are concerned that a binary trigger transforms their gun into a fully-automatic firearm. However, by the ATF’s definition of machine guns, this is not the case, and binary triggers are legal in most states (more on that later).
I might be overwrought by the FBI arresting Gradmas who violated the Capitol on January 6, but never seem to have these people on their radar? From PJ Media:
But why did Barakat want to carry out a “mass shooting event”? The Star Tribune says that “the motive for his actions remains unclear.” Mac Schneider, U.S. attorney for the district of North Dakota, said this past Friday that “if there was clear evidence of motive we would share it.” North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley added that “the shooting was not motivated by religious beliefs.”
Maybe not, but there is an extremely odd detail in the Star Tribune report: “Wrigley said a federal ‘guardian report’ was made some years back” about Barakat, “but it was not about a threat of violence. Schneider described a Guardian report as a way for the public to ‘engage local law enforcement.’”
That’s not exactly a full or honest description of what a Guardian report really is. As Twitter user ThunderB, who has been following this case closely and has an abundance of useful information on his or her Twitter page, points out, the Guardian system is officially
“The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Terrorist Threat and Suspicious Incident Tracking System.” In this context, a “suspicious incident” is clearly terror-related: “Shortly after the September 11 terrorist attacks, three FBI field offices began using an application called the Terrorist Activity Reporting System to track and monitor terrorist threats and suspicious incidents.”
What was in the Guardian report about Mohamad Barakat? Why isn’t the report being revealed now? Would it reveal that officials have been lying about his not being on their radar, and demonstrate their failure to stop yet another jihadi as they intensify their hunt for “right-wing extremists,” that is, their efforts to stigmatize and criminalize legitimate political dissent?
A cop murdering, potential terrorist is dead. Good. I am peeved that the FBI, once again, let us down. The media doesn’t want to talk about this averted attack from a Syrian Nationalist, or the dead Muslim cop killer. The guy from the Religion of Peace who as searching the internet for information on mass casualty events as far back as 2018. Nothing to see here.
I do want to talk about the brave law enforcement officers who arrived on the scene:
Officer Zach Robinson who deaded the terrorist, was field training Zach Wallin who died. Wallin, who was cremated in his police uniform, served with the Minnesota Army National Guard and deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan. Robinson was a college graduate with a wife and child.
God bless our law enforcement officers and fie on those at the top who talk but don’t do or, worse, ignore the danger.