Major major kudos to the off-duty police officer who was carrying concealed at a mall in St. Cloud MN. 22-year old stabbed 9 people, came at the off-duty officer, and the officer drew his weapon and put him down. This is why we conceal carry. We don't want to use our weapons. We don't want to kill people. But if an act of violence is happening or about to happen to us or around us, we defend ourselves and stop that violence.
"Though the mall's security teams were on site, the security officers were not armed."
Amid the chaos, Jason Falconer, an off-duty police officer from nearby Avon, killed the suspect as he threatened other shoppers.
Authorities said Adan, the attacker, had three previous encounters with police. According to Anderson, most of the encounters were for minor traffic violations, none of which led to an arrest. The police chief declined to provide further details about the attacker until more information was known.
At a news conference Sunday afternoon, the mayor and police chief praised Falconer, a part-time officer and former police chief of Albany, Minnesota, for taking action. Both officials said they had viewed a surveillance tape from Macy's which revealed details of the confrontation.
"His heroic actions are exemplary of having witnessed what he did as the suspect was lunging at him with a knife," Kleis said. "Not only did he fire, the suspect went down, came back up on three different occasions. He protected others from being injured and potentially loss of life. Clearly, a hero."