ROTC Students at Old Dominion Subdued, Killed Shooter

ROTC students in an Old Dominion University classroom subdued and killed the gunman who killed one person and wounded two others, the FBI announced Thursday.

Dominique Evans, special agent in charge of the FBI's Norfolk, Virginia, field office, said at a news conference that the suspect identified by authorities as Mohamed Bailor Jalloh shouted "Allahu Akbar" before the shooting. Then the ROTC students stopped him, showing "extreme bravery and courage" and preventing further loss of life, Evans added.

They 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.

Jalloh pleaded guilty in 2016 to attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State, according to the FBI.

The shooting is being investigated as an act of terrorism, FBI Director Kash Patel said in a social media post. Patel said the students' actions "undoubtedly saved lives along with the quick response of law enforcement."

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 Jolloh 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."

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.

Lt. Col. Jimmy Delongchamp, public information officer for the U.S. Army Cadet Command at Fort Knox, Kentucky, told The Associated Press that two people wounded are members of the Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps 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."

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, Texas, 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 rifle from a Virginia gun store but was turned away because he lacked the proper paperwork. The affidavit said he returned the next day and bought a different 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 U.S. Jalloh's attorneys 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, a George W. Bush appointee, sentenced him instead to 11 years in prison.

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 died. The other remained 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.