Old Dominion University Shooting: Gunman Had Conviction for Supporting Terrorist Group

NORFOLK, VA—A man once convicted of offering support to a terrorist group burst into an ROTC classroom at Old Dominion University on Thursday morning and opened fire, killing one person and wounding two others. The students disarmed and killed him.

The FBI later identified the shooter as Mohamed Bailor Jalloh. A former Army National Guardsman, Jalloh was sentenced in February 2017 for providing support to the designated foreign terrorist organization Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, more commonly referred by its acronym ISIL.

A source close to the investigation said Jalloh was heard to shout the Arabic phrase for God is great — “Allahu akbar” — during the attack.

In less than 10 minutes, the shooting was over. Jalloh was dead. And three other people were injured. Two victims were taken to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, where one of them died.

U.S. Rep. Jen Kiggans identified the man killed as Lt. Col. Brandon Shah, the head of the university’s Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program and a professor of military science.

Shah, a Virginia native and an ODU alumnus, enlisted in the Army in 2003 as an aviation operations specialist. He completed tours of duty in both Iraq and Afghanistan, flying an AH64 Apache and other aircraft. He was awarded a host of commendations, including two Bronze Stars.

At ODU, Shah earned a Bachelor of Science in sociology with a minor in military science. Other degrees included a Master of Business Administration from the University of Georgia and a Master of Science in engineering management from the University of Kansas.

A third victim of the shooting went to a hospital in Virginia Beach, was treated and then released. All three victims had affiliations with ODU.

FBI Director Kash Patel announced the shooting is being investigated as an act of terrorism and wrote on social media that if not for a “group of brave students” other lives would have undoubtedly been lost.

Speaking at a news conference in Norfolk, ODU Police Chief Garrett Shelton said 911 operators began receiving calls about the shooting at 10:43 a.m.

Callers relayed the shooter was inside Constant Hall, the 19-classroom building that’s home to the ODU Strome College of Business.

And a campus-wide alert was sent out instructing students and faculty to follow what has become standard protocol in active-shootings across the country: “run-hide-fight.”

Officers raced to Constant Hall.

They entered the classroom at 10:47 a.m.

They’d determined Jalloh was dead by 10:50 a.m.

An all-clear message was sent to campus just after noon.

A family information center was set up in the Big Blue Room at Chartway Arena. It will be open until 10 p.m. Thursday. Counseling support remains available at Broderick Dining Commons for students, faculty and staff.

Classes will be canceled Friday, ODU President Brian Hemphill said.

Some Norfolk public high school students were at ODU on Thursday for a tour, according to Norfolk Public Schools. The students sheltered in place and all were accounted for and safe.

In an email Thursday afternoon, Hemphill said the university faced a “tragedy.”

“I am grateful for the swift response of our police officers, emergency management personnel, and our partners at the City of Norfolk who promptly assisted the injured,” he said in the email.

When Shelton was asked at the press conference about the job of keeping students safe, he became emotional. His voice cracked and he appeared to hold back tears.

“Every one of these kids are my kids and I treat them the same way as I would my own children that are away at college,” he said. “I get it because I have a child who’s about 3 hours, 11 minutes and 30 seconds too far away.”

He added that investigators had only just begun to scour the shooting scene by 2 p.m. that it’d taken hours to properly search the building and extricate all the students and university staff still hiding.

Jalloh pleaded guilty to providing support to ISIL in 2016. He’d been living in Northern Virginia, according to the Justice Department.

Court documents say Jalloh made his plea after he was introduced to a confidential FBI informant by a now-deceased member of ISIL.

The late ISIL member was plotting an attack in the U.S., believing it would be carried out by Jalloh and the man serving as the informant.

Jalloh was known to have praised the gunman who killed five U.S. service members in a July 2015 terrorist attack in Tennessee, the Justice Department said. He’d told people about his own thoughts of conducting an attack similar to one at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009 that killed 12 people and wounded 32. And he was arrested in July 2016 after purchasing an assault rifle at a Northern Virginia gun dealership. He was released from federal prison in December 2024.

Still some details remained unclear as of Thursday evening. Dominique Evans, special agent in charge of the Norfolk FBI field office, said that Jalloh was not shot to death but did not elaborate on the weapon used.

Norfolk Commonwealth Attorney Ramin Fatehi closed the press conference, saying Thursday’s shooting was not an “ODU problem” but a “national sickness.”

“We live in a country where people care more about guns than they care about 6-year-old children. They care more about guns than they do about synagogue worshippers, where they care more about guns than they do about college students.”

The FBI asked anyone with information about the case to email tips to tips.fbi.gov or contact ODU or Norfolk police.

Staff writers Kendall Warner and Macy Friend contributed to this report.

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