ROTC students subdued and killed a gunman who yelled “Allahu Akbar” before opening fire Thursday in an Old Dominion University classroom, killing one and wounding two, according to the FBI, which said the shooter had been in the Army and pleaded guilty in 2016 to attempting to aid the Islamic State.
Dominique Evans, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Norfolk field office, said at a news conference that the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps students showed “extreme bravery and courage” and prevented further loss of life by stopping the suspect, identified as Mohamed Bailor Jalloh.
The ROTC students subdued him and “rendered him no longer alive,” Evans said. “I don’t know how else to say it.”
She didn’t provide further details about that except to confirm the gunman wasn’t shot. She said Jalloh aspired to conduct a terrorist attack like the killings at Fort Hood.
The shooting is being investigated as an act of terrorism, FBI Director Kash Patel said in a social media post.
The students’ actions “undoubtedly saved lives along with the quick response of law enforcement,” Patel said.
Jalloh, a former member of the Army National Guard, was sentenced to 11 years in prison and was released from federal custody in December 2024.
Ashraf Nubani, a Virginia attorney who represented Jalloh in his 2016 criminal case, did not immediately respond to messages Thursday seeking comment.
Jalloh’s sister, Fatmatu Jalloh of Sterling, Virginia, said Thursday she knew nothing about the attack. She said she last saw her brother two days earlier.
“I have no idea what is going on,” the suspect’s sister said. “I know nothing. I don’t even know who to call.”
Shooter confirmed dead within 10 minutes of call
At a news conference Thursday afternoon, Old Dominion University Police Chief Garrett Shelton said officers responded after receiving reports that people were being shot in one of the classrooms in the university’s business school building, Constant Hall.
After the university initially said there were two victims, Shelton said authorities learned that there was a third victim who brought themselves to a hospital. It wasn’t immediately clear how the shooter died.
He did not acknowledge whether any officers fired a weapon.
He said all three victims are affiliated with the university. Shelton said authorities are “very early” in the investigation and have not yet determined the “full cause of death” of the shooter.
Within a matter of less than 10 minutes, the call came in, officers arrived and they determined the shooter was dead, the chief said.
Lt. Col. Jimmy Delongchamp, public information officer for the U.S. Army Cadet Command at Fort Knox, Kentucky, told The Associated Press that the two people wounded are members of the Army ROTC at ODU.
“We will continue to coordinate with the university and law enforcement agencies as they investigate the incident,” Delongchamp said in a brief telephone interview. “There’s still a lot more stuff we have to work out.”
Jalloh: Guard service and Islamic State ties
The suspected shooter, Jalloh, is a naturalized U.S. citizen from Sierra Leone.
According to a 2016 FBI affidavit filed in his criminal case, Jalloh told a government informant he quit the Army National Guard after hearing lectures from radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki. The Virginia Army National Guard confirmed Jalloh served as a specialist from 2009 until 2015, when he was honorably discharged.
A court affidavit recounts a three-month sting operation in which Jalloh, then 26, said he was thinking about carrying out an attack similar to the 2009 shootings at Fort Hood, which left 13 people dead. Authorities launched the 2016 operation after Jalloh made contact with Islamic State members in Africa earlier that year.
Jalloh later told the informant that the Islamic State group had asked if he wanted to participate in an attack. He tried to donate $500 to the Islamic State, but the money actually went to an account controlled by the FBI, according to court documents.
Jalloh then tried to buy an AR-15 assault rifle from a Virginia gun store but was turned away because he lacked the proper paperwork. The affidavit says he returned the next day and bought a different assault rifle. Prosecutors said the rifle was rendered inoperable before Jalloh left the store, unbeknownst to Jalloh. He was arrested the following day.
The Justice Department in 2017 requested a 20-year prison sentence for Jalloh, noting that he had made multiple attempts to join the Islamic State and had attempted to acquire a gun to carry out a murder plot in the United States. Jalloh’s lawyers requested a 6½-year prison sentence and placement in a facility with residential drug treatment for inmates with addiction and substance abuse issues.
“The defendant was fully aware of what he was doing, and the consequences of those actions. His only misgivings seemed to be a fear that he would waver at the critical moment,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum.
They added: “By putting the idea of this murder plot into religious terms, and by suggesting that murdering members of the US military would be a path to heaven, the defendant showed how strongly committed he was to the deadly ideology” of the Islamic State.
U.S. District Judge Liam O’Grady, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, sentenced him instead to 11 years in prison.
Tragedy on campus
According to Sentara Health, two of the Old Dominion University victims were transported by ambulance to the Level I trauma center at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital. One of those patients has passed away. The other remains in critical condition.
A third person was treated and released from the Sentara Independence free-standing emergency department in Virginia Beach after arriving in a personal vehicle, Sentara Health said.
Within about an hour of the shooting, ODU declared that there was no longer a threat on the campus.
The public university in Norfolk canceled classes and suspended all operations on its main campus through Friday and urged people to avoid the area in and around Constant Hall while emergency officials continued to work. Counseling and food services will remain available.
In a message to the university community, ODU President Brian Hemphill said the school faced a tragedy on campus. He expressed gratefulness for the swift emergency response and thoughts and prayers to those impacted.
“The safety of our campus community is my top priority," Hemphill wrote. "We are deeply committed to safeguarding all Monarchs and ensuring a secure learning, living, and working environment at all times.”
The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said on the social platform X that it had agents on scene supporting the response.
Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger said in social media posts that she was monitoring the situation and that “state support is being mobilized” to help ODU. She didn’t provide specifics.
Located in coastal Norfolk, Old Dominion University has about 24,000 students, 17,500 of them undergraduates. The school has around 240 degree programs, and is known for its research spending and doctoral programs. Nearly 30% of its students are military-affiliated, according to the university website. The area is also home to Naval Station Norfolk, the largest naval station in the world.
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Associated Press journalists Allen G. Breed in Wake Forest, North Carolina, and Michael Biesecker in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.
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This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Fatmatu Jalloh's surname.
