Reading up on Abdi's case and thought of this until I saw it was a middle-aged man.
I'm a local and only heard about Abdi a couple days ago.
I lived by Merle Hay Mall for four years, and shopped at Target weekly. I never felt unsafe there by myself. Any mall in Des Moines (or anywhere, really) has its fair share trouble makers. Des Moines has been growing rapidly and with population growth, unfortunately, comes trouble. There's a lot we don't know, and it's unfortunate that MSM has waited so long to get the word out about his disappearance. So much opportunity has been lost by not organizing a search party sooner and getting his face out there.