Old Dominion shooter’s prison drug-program release raises terrorism loophole questions

Old Dominion shooting prompts scrutiny of sentencing-time-credit loophole

The man who opened fire in a classroom at Virginia’s Old Dominion University completed a drug treatment program that allowed him to leave federal prison early, even though he had been convicted in federal court of a terrorism-related offense, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons said. The Bureau confirmed that Mohamed Bailor Jalloh was released in December 2024 after what it described as the operation of a loophole in sentence-reduction eligibility tied to the Residential Drug Abuse Program, known as RDAP.

Jalloh had been sentenced to 11 years in prison after pleading guilty in 2017 to providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, the Islamic State group, according to the AP report. Federal prison records described his release as about 2½ years early. Under federal guidance, he would have remained in custody longer if the terrorism-related bar to certain credits had been applied.

The Bureau of Prisons told The Associated Press that it closed the loophole and changed its policies to bar inmates with terrorism-related convictions from receiving early release time credit through RDAP. The agency said its earlier efforts to update a list of excluded offenses stalled in negotiations with the union representing corrections workers.

The Bureau said the policy change followed a period in which RDAP time credits had been available to a terrorism-related population. It also said that since canceling the union contract last year, “not one inmate with terrorism related charges has received time credit” for completing the drug treatment program.

Union officials disputed blame for how the loophole operated. Jose Rojas, a union official and former correctional worker, told AP: “It’s highly insulting to put the blame on the union. We have no say so in that.”

Thursday’s shooting at Old Dominion ended with ROTC students who subdued and killed Jalloh, according to the report. Authorities said he was taking online classes at the university at the time. The attack killed one person and wounded two others, and elected officials questioned how someone with known ties to the Islamic State group was able to carry out the attack.

The federal Bureau of Prisons said Jalloh had been incarcerated at a low-security facility in Allenwood, Pennsylvania, and was transferred to a residential reentry center, or halfway house, in the Baltimore area in August 2024. The Bureau said he was released from federal custody on Dec. 23, 2024.

Jalloh also had an ongoing period of supervision known as supervised release in the federal system when he attacked the campus, the AP report said. Based on his release date, his supervised release term would have run into 2029. The report said a probation officer visited his Sterling, Virginia, home every six months, with the last visit in November, according to a law enforcement affidavit filed Friday against a man charged with supplying a gun to Jalloh.

Prosecutors and undercover operation details appeared in Jalloh’s case files

The AP report said Jalloh’s 2017 guilty plea came after a three-month sting operation involving the FBI. The report described that in October 2016, Jalloh, then 26, confessed to an undercover FBI agent about thinking through an attack similar to the 2009 shootings at Fort Hood, which left 13 people dead. The operation began after Jalloh made contact with Islamic State group members in Africa earlier that year.

The report said Jalloh later told the informant that the Islamic State group asked whether he wanted to participate in an attack, and that he tried to donate $500. According to court documents described by AP, the money was routed to an account controlled by the FBI.

The report also said Jalloh tried to buy an AR-15 assault rifle from a Virginia gun store but was turned away due to lack of required paperwork, and returned the next day to buy a different assault rifle. Prosecutors said the rifle was rendered inoperable before Jalloh left the store, and that he was arrested the following day.

Debate over what sentence he should receive shaped his prison term

According to the AP report, the Justice Department requested a 20-year sentence in 2017, describing multiple attempts by Jalloh to join the Islamic State group and attempts to acquire a gun for what prosecutors characterized as a murder plot. Prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum that Jalloh was “fully aware of what he was doing” and that his misgivings reflected a fear he would waver at the moment of action.

Prosecutors also argued that by putting the idea of a murder plot into religious terms, and suggesting that murdering members of the U.S. military would lead to heaven, Jalloh showed strong commitment to the Islamic State group’s ideology, according to AP’s account of the memorandum.

Jalloh’s lawyers asked for 6½ years in prison, the AP report said, and requested placement in a facility providing residential drug treatment for inmates with addiction and substance abuse issues. U.S. District Judge Liam O’Grady sentenced Jalloh to 11 years, granting credit for time served since his July 2016 arrest.

The AP report said O’Grady ordered Jalloh to participate in programs that included substance abuse testing and treatment, mental health treatment, and requested evaluation for the federal prison system’s residential drug program. The federal Bureau of Prisons describes RDAP as a program in which completing residential drug treatment can reduce an inmate’s sentence by up to a year, AP said.

The report added that, under the First Step Act, inmates convicted of terrorism-related offenses are not eligible for certain good conduct time reductions. It said, however, that the prison system’s drug program eligibility and the loophole in the excluded offenses list played a role in Jalloh’s December 2024 release.

Records and letters described radicalization and drug use

The AP report said little was publicly known about Jalloh, but described court documents portraying him as troubled and as having been radicalized by Anwar al-Awlaki, described as an American imam and al-Qaida propagandist. The Virginia Army National Guard confirmed, according to AP, that he served as a specialist from 2009 until 2015, when he was honorably discharged.

AP reported that in a letter to the federal judge, Jalloh wrote that he felt deep regret for being driven by emotions rather than intellect and for becoming involved with what he called an evil organization. The report said he wrote: “I reject and deplore terrorism and any groups associated with it, especially ISIL.” It also said the letter remained under seal, but excerpts were included in a sentencing memorandum by his lawyer.

The AP report said Jalloh wrote that he started using drugs after his girlfriend ended their six-year relationship and described drugs and alcohol as having taken away pain he said he felt internally. The report quoted him writing: “The pain I felt internally was unbearable, and drugs and alcohol were the only things that took that pain away,” and describing the use of marijuana, cocaine and mushrooms.

As authorities and federal prison officials continue to scrutinize how RDAP time credits were applied, the AP report said questions have focused on whether a terrorism-related conviction should have disqualified Jalloh from the kind of early-release benefit he ultimately received.