10th ISIS terror suspect a surprise to Twin Cities Somali community

To prosecutors, Abdirizak Warsame is the 10th Minnesota man to face terror charges for conspiring to join ISIS, but to people in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis, he is the last person they expected to get into trouble.

Those that knew him say he spoke out against gang violence and was involved in many of the kind of social programs that are being proposed to counter violent extremism.

Community leader Mohamud Noor knew Warsame when he was just a young teenager, doing spoken word in the neighborhood and playing basketball at the local community center.

“[He was] a good kid who was looking forward to a better future. [He] was trying to fit into the society in his place,” Noor said.

Most recently, Warsame was going to Normandale  Community College and was working long hours as a security guard. He was living in Eagan with his mother, who had very publicly encouraged parents in the community to cooperate with the FBI.

On social media, he could write in poetic terms, like "a man driven by anger will always have regrets, and a man driven by ignorance can never be in check." 

However, there are also signs that something may have changed for Warsame. His last, cryptic tweet came just a day before he was arrested. It read, "It's crazy how they love you after your struggle, but not when you was going thru it."