The violence hit two different communities less than two hours apart, leaving residents and worshipers stunned as investigators sought to determine motives and whether either assault met the federal threshold for terrorism.
In Virginia, officials said Jalloh, a former Army National Guard member who had served years in prison for attempting to aid the Islamic State, opened fire inside a classroom at Old Dominion University on Thursday. Authorities said ROTC students subdued and killed him, and officials credited their response with preventing more bloodshed. Investigators said Jalloh yelled “Allahu akbar” and asked whether people in the classroom were holding an ROTC event before he began shooting, according to authorities and court papers.
Lt. Col. Brandon Shah, described as an ROTC leader, died, and two others were wounded, officials said. The FBI said the students’ bravery helped prevent further harm. One person wounded was later released from the hospital, while Sentara Health said the other person was in fair condition.
Federal investigators also revisited Jalloh’s background as part of a terrorism review. Court records cited by AP said Jalloh pleaded guilty in 2017 to providing material support to the Islamic State and was sentenced to 11 years in prison. A person familiar with the matter told AP that he was released early after completing a drug treatment program, and it wasn’t clear how he qualified for early release because inmates serving sentences for terrorism-related offenses typically aren’t eligible for such programs or other sentence-reducing credits.
Investigators said Jalloh had been transferred in August 2024 to a residential reentry center, often described as a halfway house, and released from federal custody later that year. They said he was on probation and taking online classes at the university when he carried out the shooting. FBI Director Kash Patel later posted on social media that the campus attack was being investigated as terrorism.
In Michigan, federal and local investigators described an attack at Temple Israel, a major Reform synagogue outside Detroit, where children and staff were inside. Authorities said Ghazali waited in his car outside the synagogue for about two hours with a rifle, commercial-grade fireworks and jugs of liquid believed to be gasoline before ramming into the building. Investigators said he started firing through the windshield, exchanging fire with an armed security guard, before fatally shooting himself after becoming stuck and the engine catching fire, according to Jennifer Runyan, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Detroit field office.
The FBI said it was violence targeting the Jewish community, though the agency said it did not yet have enough evidence to call it an act of terror. Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard said preparation and training helped enable a swift response.
Investigators and officials also examined why Ghazali may have targeted the synagogue. A town official in Mashgharah, who requested anonymity because he could not publicly discuss details of an Israeli airstrike, told AP that Ghazali had learned about a week earlier that four of his family members were killed in Lebanon—his two brothers, a niece and a nephew—killed just after sunset while they were having their fast-breaking meal during Ramadan. The official said their mother was seriously wounded and remains in the hospital.
The federal government’s immigration history for Ghazali also came under scrutiny. AP reported that Ghazali came to the United States in 2011 on an immediate relative visa as the spouse of a U.S. citizen, and that the Department of Homeland Security records show he received U.S. citizenship in 2016. Authorities said he lived in a single-story brick home in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn Heights, about 38 miles (61 kilometers) south of the synagogue.