Fargo, North Dakota appears to have avoided a serious terrorist attack last week, but sadly, at a great cost. City officers were ambushed by Mohamad Barakat, 37, who was armed with a rifle and almost 2,000 rounds of ammo, while the officers were investigating a routine car crash.
Officers Jake Wallin, Andrew Dotas and Tyler Hawes were shot by Barakat from about 15 to 20 feet away before they could even reach for their guns. Wallin was killed with Dotas and Hawes were wounded. Officer Zach Robinson was nearby when the attack occurred and killed Barakat during the confrontation.
Jake’s memory will forever be honored by our department, community, state & nation.
— Fargo Police (@FargoPolice) July 22, 2023
Heroes walk among us & now have another hero watching over us.
Funeral services will be streamed via our Facebook page, with sincere thanks to our broadcast partner, WDAY TV. #WeAreFargoPD
It has since been revealed Barakat is originally from Syria was allowed into the United States via asylum in 2012. He later became a full citizen in 2019, according to Inforum. While he does not have much of criminal history, only a speeding ticket was found, North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley revealed there was a Guardian report on him.
"Information that we have from our federal partners says he was not on the terrorist watch list, but there was this Guardian report," Wrigley said. "I'm not going to say much about it except it is not, we are told, about a threat of violence or an act of this nature or anything along these lines."
The FBI's website says the Guardian program is a "web-based platform where federal and state law enforcement entities can collaborate, coordinate, and deconflict investigative activity...to document, share and track potential threats, suspicious activity, and cyber, counterterrorism, counterintelligence, or criminal activity with the FBI and with each other."
In addition to the ammo and rifle, police found three long guns, four handguns, numerous ammo magazines, explosives, canisters with gasoline and a homemade hand grenade in Barakat's car. The investigation has found evidence Barakat was planning to attack another area of Fargo before encountering the responding police officers.