Investigation reveals Fargo gunman’s movements before deadly police shooting

BISMARCK, N.D. — Newly released investigative reports into last year’s deadly ambush of police officers in Fargo show the gunman loading his weapons into a garage and visiting a gun range hours before the attack.

wallen

Barakat shot and killed one Fargo police officer and wounded two other officers and a bystander before a fourth officer killed him in an exchange of gunfire. Investigators have said they believe Barakat was planning a larger attack.

Images taken from video on the night before the shooting show Barakat checking his door while holding a gun and a cellphone, and later assembling a short-barreled shotgun. The next morning, the 37-year-old gunman is seen accessing trail cameras via his computer, holding guns, donning a tactical vest and loading a suitcase before leaving his home. The report doesn’t specify how the images were captured inside Barakat’s home.

The documents show that he spent about 20 minutes at a gun range about 20 miles west of Fargo, then bought gas and cigarettes at a nearby convenience store. Much of his subsequent movements involved driving around Fargo, returning several times to his garage and at least twice to his apartment.

After Barakat left his garage for the last time, he drove near the site of a fender bender on a busy street. According to North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley, Barakat watched, waited for and targeted the responding officers.

Wrigley has already released videos from the officers’ body cameras, a squad car dashboard camera and a nearby business showing Barakat driving around the crash scene before parking and opening fire.

Barakat lived alone in an apartment, working odd jobs for money. He had no criminal record or social media presence, authorities said, and had so little contact with others that the only photo of him investigators initially provided was a blurry image taken from a video.

Barakat shot and killed 23-year-old Officer Jake Wallin, a native of St. Michael, Minn., who managed to fire one round before he died. He also wounded Officers Andrew Dotas and Tyler Hawes, and a driver who had rear-ended another vehicle in the crash.

Barakat waited until the officers moved closer to him, into a grassy area to interview crash witnesses, before he opened fire from his vehicle with no apparent warning. He used a .223-caliber rifle that had been modified with a binary trigger to unleash a torrent of bullets, some of which hit passing cars and nearby homes.

A fourth officer, Zach Robinson, fired back with a 9-mm handgun, shooting the clip of Barakat’s rifle and effectively disabling it. Robinson called for backup, then ran toward danger as Barakat moved between parked cars.

The video shows the wounded Barakat on the ground, ignoring Robinson's commands to drop his weapon. Robinson fired five more shots. After nearly two minutes, 21 of the 31 shots Robinson fired had struck the gunman.

Investigators also found 1,800 rounds of ammunition and a homemade grenade.

Barakat was a Syrian national who sought asylum in the U.S. in 2012 and became a U.S. citizen in 2019, Wrigley said. Concerns about his collection of at least 10 guns and 6,000 rounds of ammunition prompted police to interview Barakat at his home at least twice, but he appeared to have acquired the weapons legally.

After the attack, investigators examining Barakat's internet history found that over the past five years, he had searched for terms including ''kill fast,'' ''explosive ammo,'' ''incendiary rounds,'' and ''mass shooting events." The day before the shooting, he searched for ''area events where there are crowds," which brought up a news article with the headline, ''Thousands enjoy first day of Downtown Fargo Street Fair."