ROTC students at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, subdued and killed a gunman after he opened fire at a campus classroom on Thursday, according to authorities. The FBI said the shooting left one person dead and two people wounded, and federal officials said the former Army National Guard member who carried out the attack had previously served time for attempting to aid the Islamic State.
At a news conference, FBI special agent Dominique Evans described the students’ response as decisive in stopping the threat. Evans said the ROTC students showed “extreme bravery and courage” and prevented further loss of life by stopping the gunman, Mohamed Bailor Jalloh. She said the students subdued him and “rendered him no longer alive,” adding, “I don’t know how else to say it.” Evans also confirmed that Jalloh was not shot, though she did not provide further details on how the confrontation ended.
FBI Director Kash Patel said on social media that authorities were investigating the campus shooting as an act of terrorism. The investigation also focuses on Jalloh’s background, including what authorities said his past statements and connections indicated about his motives.
Old Dominion University Police Chief Garrett Shelton said less than 10 minutes passed between when officers were called about a shooting in the university’s business school building and when responders determined the shooter was dead. Shelton said authorities had not yet fully determined the shooter’s cause of death and did not confirm whether officers fired a weapon.
Investigators said the gunman had spent eight years in prison after pleading guilty in 2016 to attempting to aid the Islamic State. Evans said Jalloh aspired to conduct a terrorist attack like the 2009 killings at Fort Hood, and authorities said he carried out the Thursday attack while on supervised release, which is comparable to probation. It was not immediately clear, authorities said, why his release from prison had been moved up.
Ashraf Nubani, a Virginia attorney who represented Jalloh in the 2016 criminal case, said in a statement that he had no recent contact with Jalloh and no information about the events on Thursday. Nubani said, “Any loss of life is tragic, and violence against innocent people is completely contrary to Islamic teachings and basic human morality.”
Jalloh’s sister, Fatmatu Jalloh of Sterling, Virginia, also said she knew nothing about the attack. In remarks reported from Thursday, she said, “I have no idea what is going on,” and that she “know[s] nothing,” adding, “I don’t even know who to call.”
Authorities said two of the people who were shot included members of the Army ROTC at Old Dominion. Voorhees University in South Carolina confirmed that the victim who died was Lt. Col. Brandon Shah, the son-in-law of a Voorhees trustee, and said Shah attended Old Dominion as an ROTC student and later returned in 2022 as a leader for the program. The account of Shah’s background said he flew helicopters over Iraq, Afghanistan and Eastern Europe as a pilot, and he had been hospitalized after the shooting.
As officials continued the investigation, Sentara Health said one of the people hospitalized after the shooting was in critical condition Thursday, while the other had been treated and released. Old Dominion University canceled classes and suspended operations on its main campus through Friday, and President Brian Hemphill said in a message to the university community that the school expressed gratitude for the swift emergency response and extended its thoughts and prayers to those impacted.
Federal and court records cited by the FBI account describe a 2016 sting in which prosecutors said Jalloh, then 26, expressed interest in carrying out an attack similar to Fort Hood, after authorities launched the operation following contact with Islamic State members in Africa. Court documents described Jalloh trying to donate money to the group, attempting to buy an AR-15 but being turned away due to paperwork, and returning the next day to buy a different assault rifle that prosecutors said had been made inoperable before he left the store. Prosecutors said Jalloh was arrested the following day, later sentenced in federal court to 11 years in prison, and placed under five years of supervised release.