In a grim sample that has grow to be all too acquainted, one other campus has been shattered by gunfire, this time at Old Dominion University in Virginia, the place an attacker cloaked violence in the language of faith.
Federal authorities are investigating Thursday’s shooting at Old Dominion University as an act of terrorism after figuring out the gunman as Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, 36, a former member of the Virginia National Guard who beforehand served jail time for making an attempt to assist the terrorist group ISIS.
Devoted ROTC teacher Lt. Col. Brandon Shah, a father and husband, was killed in the attack. Two others had been hospitalized with accidents, college police Chief Garrett Shelton stated, noting all three victims had been affiliated with the college.
Federal investigators say they’re nonetheless piecing collectively the occasions main as much as the assault and what led Jalloh to hold out the capturing.
The case has drawn renewed scrutiny to Jalloh’s previous, together with a terrorism conviction almost a decade in the past that adopted an investigation officers stated stored them “up at night,” in addition to the circumstances surrounding his early launch from jail.
During the earlier investigation earlier than his stint in jail, investigators had been made conscious that Jalloh had expressed admiration for the 2009 Fort Hood shooting rampage, when Army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan killed 13 individuals and wounded dozens at a Texas army base.
Here’s what we know about Jalloh.
Jalloh, a naturalized US citizen born in Sierra Leone, served as a fight engineer in the Virginia National Guard between 2009 and 2015, in response to a US Army official.
During a 2016 investigation, authorities discovered he had begun consuming on-line lectures from a deceased Al-Qaeda chief and in the end determined to not reenlist after leaving the Guard.
That similar yr, federal prosecutors stated Jalloh tried to help ISIS. He sought to acquire weapons he believed can be utilized in an assault carried out in the group’s title and likewise tried to ship cash to the terrorist group, in response to the Department of Justice.
Unbeknownst to him, the individual he was speaking with was an FBI supply who was monitoring his conduct.
In 2016, Jalloh initially tried to buy an AR-15-style rifle from a gun store in Virginia however was denied as a result of he didn’t have the required documentation, in response to the affidavit.
Authorities say he got here again later the similar day and bought a special rifle, however the weapon had been disabled earlier than he left the retailer. He was taken into custody the subsequent day.
In conversations with the supply, courtroom paperwork say Jalloh had mentioned potential timelines for an assault on US soil and “expressed that it was better to plan an operation for Ramadan,” in response to a FBI affidavit filed in his prison case.
Ramadan is one among the holiest intervals in Islam, a month devoted to fasting, prayer, reflection and non secular renewal. The religion’s teachings emphasize compassion, endurance and restraint, together with refraining from anger and cruelty, values meant to be practiced much more deeply throughout Ramadan.
Central to Islamic doctrine is the prohibition towards taking harmless life, a precept that stands in direct distinction to acts of violence typically erroneously carried out in its title.
An earlier plot and its echoes in the ODU assault
Jalloh pleaded responsible to making an attempt to supply materials assist to a chosen international terrorist group and was sentenced to 11 years in prison and 5 years of supervised launch in 2017.
Jalloh was serving his sentence at a low-security federal facility in Allenwood, Pennsylvania, earlier than being moved in August 2024 to a residential reentry heart, generally often known as a midway home, in the Baltimore space, in response to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
He was launched from federal custody in December 2024 — about two-and-a-half years earlier than the finish of his sentence.
His launch got here by way of a federal provision that permits some inmates to obtain early launch after finishing a substance abuse therapy program, in response to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Jalloh stated in 2016 he had been considering about finishing up an assault just like the 2009 Fort Hood bloodbath, authorities stated.
Officials imagine that fixation could have carried over into Thursday’s capturing, which focused an ROTC gathering that included each active-duty army personnel and college students coaching for service, in response to FBI Special Agent in Charge Dominique Evans.
Jalloh’s earlier case drew specific concern amongst investigators and specialists.
In the e book “Homegrown: ISIS in America,” terrorism researcher Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens devoted a complete part to Jalloh’s 2016 case. When information of the assault broke, Meleagrou-Hitchens stated he was surprised.
“As far as I knew, he was still in jail,” he instructed CNN, including the information raised critical questions about how authorities handle people convicted of supporting terrorist organizations as soon as they’re launched.
Meleagrou-Hitchens stated a number of elements made Jalloh significantly regarding to investigators at the time. Among them had been his army coaching, his journey to Sierra Leone after leaving the Guard the place he tried to make contact with ISIS-linked militants in Nigeria, and his communication with an ISIS “virtual plotter.”
These on-line operatives, based mostly in territory as soon as managed by ISIS, sought out supporters in Western international locations and helped information potential assaults from afar.
Jalloh’s ambitions at the time, Meleagrou-Hitchens instructed CNN, appeared to reflect the scale of the Fort Hood bloodbath.
Special brokers in command of Jalloh’s case in 2016 stated of the multitude of circumstances they investigated over years, this was the one which “kept them up at night,” Meleagrou-Hitchens wrote in his e book.
Inmates with terrorism-related convictions are now not eligible for early launch below a brand new 2025 provision, in response to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Bureau director William Marshall carried out the change on September 25, 2025, below a Trump-era govt order, making certain inmates with terrorism associated prices will now not qualify for early launch below the prior federal provision.
After his launch from jail in December 2024, Jalloh is believed to have lived with household in Sterling, Virginia. He was taking on-line lessons at Old Dominion University after his launch from jail, courtroom information present.
Court paperwork say he remained below court-mandated probation at the time of the capturing, although a probation officer visited the house he shared together with his sister solely twice a yr. The most up-to-date go to occurred in November 2025.
It is unclear if Jalloh exhibited any warning indicators which may have emerged throughout the roughly yr he spent outdoors jail earlier than the assault.
Reporting from the neighborhood the place he could have lived painted an image of a comparatively quiet family.
Multiple generations reside in the upscale three-level red-brick townhouse, in response to neighbors. They stated the household is thought to host not less than one massive gathering a yr, typically with loud music.
An indication posted on Jalloh’s household’s entrance door learn, “We do not wish to speak to the press!”
After CNN knocked on the door, a middle-aged man answered and reiterated the household didn’t need to converse to reporters.
“We really don’t want to speak to the media. Please understand we’re going through a very tough time,” he stated.
He didn’t affirm whether or not Jalloh lived there.
Neighbors instructed reporters the household largely stored to themselves.
Kenneth Brown, who lives in the neighborhood, instructed CNN he would sometimes see Jalloh strolling round the space.
“He would look down and not acknowledge you,” Brown stated.
Authorities say the violence unfolded late Thursday morning inside Constant Hall, the major constructing for Old Dominion University’s College of Business.
Old Dominion, a public college with about 24,000 college students, is situated in Norfolk, Virginia, roughly 200 miles southeast of Washington, DC.
Investigators say Jalloh entered a category or assembly attended by ROTC college students and active-duty service members at the college.
He requested individuals in the room twice to substantiate it was an ROTC occasion, in response to courtroom paperwork.
Moments later, authorities say he shouted “Allahu Akbar,” an Arabic phrase which means “God is greatest,” and opened fireplace.
The phrase “Allahu Akbar” is a central expression in Islam and is recited many occasions throughout Muslims’ 5 every day prayers. It is often utilized by Muslims round the world in on a regular basis life to reward God in moments of gratitude, pleasure and celebration, comparable to listening to excellent news or marking milestones and likewise in occasions of hardship as a reminder that religion is larger than any problem.
Religious students and group leaders have lengthy famous that extremist teams have at occasions misappropriated the phrase throughout acts of violence, a use that stands in stark distinction to its deeply non secular which means inside the religion.
When Jalloh started capturing, the group of scholars in the room shortly reacted, dashing the attacker and managing to subdue him, Evans stated.
“Brave ROTC members in that room subdued him, and if not for them, I’m not sure what else he may have done,” Evans stated.
One of the college students stabbed Jalloh, in response to a number of regulation enforcement sources briefed on the case. The attacker’s final reason behind demise is unclear.
Police stated the first calls reporting the capturing got here in at 10:43 a.m. Officers arrived 4 minutes later, and by 10:50 a.m., authorities decided the attacker was lifeless.
Old Dominion pupil Zachary Mulder stated he had simply left a category in Constant Hall and was studying in one other constructing when individuals immediately rushed in yelling there was a shooter.
“My heart dropped,” Mulder instructed CNN affiliate WTKR. “I didn’t really know what was going on. I just knew I had to leave immediately.”
Investigators later stated the firearm utilized in Thursday’s assault had been bought illegally. Prosecutors say the one that offered the weapon instructed authorities that Jalloh claimed he wanted it for defense whereas working as a supply driver.
Kenya Mcchell Chapman was arrested Friday in connection to his sale of a pistol to Jalloh.
A cellphone recovered close to Jalloh’s physique allowed regulation enforcement to retrace his current actions, in response to courtroom filings. Investigators say he repeatedly traveled between a number of areas in Virginia in the days main as much as the assault, together with his house, the college campus, one other residence and an Islamic heart.
