Attacks in Virginia and Michigan unfold less than 2 hours apart, officials say

Communities reeled after two violent attacks in the United States unfolded less than two hours apart, with officials describing the Virginia incident as terrorism-linked and investigating the Michigan synagogue attack as targeting the Jewish community.

In Virginia, a former Army National Guard member opened fire at Old Dominion University on Thursday in a classroom, killing one person and wounding two others. Authorities said ROTC students subdued and killed the shooter.

In Michigan, a man rammed a vehicle into Temple Israel, a major Reform synagogue near Detroit, and then killed himself, officials said. Authorities said none of the 140 children and staff inside were hurt, but a security officer was hit by the vehicle and knocked unconscious.

Authorities said Mohamed Bailor Jalloh yelled “Allahu akbar” and asked whether those in the university classroom were holding an ROTC event before he opened fire, according to authorities and court papers. They said Jalloh killed Lt. Col. Brandon Shah, an ROTC leader, and wounded two others.

FBI officials praised the students’ bravery for preventing further harm, according to the report. One of the people wounded had since been released from the hospital, while Sentara Health said the other person was in fair condition.

The campus shooting is being investigated as an act of terrorism, FBI Director Kash Patel said on social media, according to the report. The report also noted that ROTC students receive a scholarship to attend college while training to become commissioned officers in the U.S. military.

Court and other records cited in the report said Jalloh was a naturalized U.S. citizen from Sierra Leone who served as a specialist with the Virginia Army National Guard until 2015, when he was honorably discharged. In 2017, the report said, he pleaded guilty to providing material support to the Islamic State group and was sentenced to 11 years in prison.

The report said Jalloh was released early after completing a drug treatment program, and that a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press he was released in that way. It also reported that it wasn’t clear how he qualified for early release because inmates serving sentences for terrorism-related offenses typically aren’t eligible for drug treatment program credits or other sentence-reducing credits.

Court records cited by AP said Jalloh was transferred from a prison facility to a residential reentry center, or halfway house, in August 2024, then released from federal custody later that year. The report said he was on probation and taking online classes at the university at the time of the shooting.

In Michigan, the FBI said Ayman Mohammad Ghazali waited in his car outside Temple Israel for about two hours with a rifle, commercial grade fireworks, and jugs of liquid believed to be gasoline before crashing into the synagogue. The report said he started firing his gun through the windshield and exchanged fire with an armed security guard.

Jennifer Runyan, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Detroit field office, said Ghazali fatally shot himself after he got stuck in his vehicle and the engine caught fire, according to the report. The FBI described the attack as violence targeting the Jewish community but said it did not have enough evidence yet to call it an act of terror, AP reported.

Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard credited preparation and training for the swift response to the attack, the report said. AP also reported that a town official in Mashgharah told AP that Ghazali had recently learned an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon killed his family members.

That official, who requested anonymity because he could not publicly discuss details of the airstrike, told AP that the attack killed two brothers, a niece and a nephew, and that the killings occurred just after sunset while they were having their fast-breaking meal during Ramadan. The official also said Ghazali’s mother was seriously wounded and remained in the hospital.

The report said Israel has stepped up attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon as the war with Iran has spread violence across the Middle East. AP further reported that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Ghazali came to the U.S. in 2011 on an immediate relative visa as the spouse of a U.S. citizen, and that he was granted U.S. citizenship in 2016.

AP reported that Ghazali lived in a single-story brick home in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn Heights, about 38 miles (61 kilometers) south of the synagogue.