Suspect in Old Dominion University shooting was convicted ISIS supporter
The gunman who opened fire on an Old Dominion University classroom had previously been convicted of supporting ISIS and, according to court documents, was on probation for that terrorism-related charge when he carried out Thursday’s deadly attack.
One person was killed and two other people were injured in the shooting. The suspect, identified by an FBI spokesperson as Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, 36, was also killed.
The fatally injured victim was identified as Brandon A. Shah, Army Lt. Col. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll said the two people injured at the university were military personnel.
The attack on the campus in Norfolk, Virginia, is being investigated as an act of terrorism, FBI officials said. Jalloh pleaded guilty a decade ago to attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, ISIS.
Dominique Evans, special agent in charge of the agency’s Norfolk field office, said he shouted “Allahu Akbar” and was overpowered by students who “rendered him dead.”
Jalloh served in the Virginia National Guard from 2009 to 2015 as a combat engineer, military officials said. He had no deployment and was honorably discharged, officials said.
He was arrested the following year on terrorism charges, according to court documents.
Jalloh pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 11 years in prison and five years of probation. He was also ordered to participate in a computer surveillance program, according to his sentencing record.
He was released in 2024. The federal probation office that appeared to oversee his supervised release did not immediately respond Thursday to a message seeking comment.
According to a government sentencing memo, Jalloh sent gift card codes to an undercover FBI employee who he believed to be a member of the Islamic State terrorist group, also known as ISIS. He traveled to North Carolina in 2016 to attempt to purchase an AK-47 for what the memo describes as a “plot to assassinate U.S. military personnel.”
The owner refused to sell it, according to the memo, and Jalloh purchased an AR-15 at a gun store. He was arrested the next day.
In another sentencing memo, his defense team described his “radical ideals” as a superficial search for identity and purpose that did not represent a commitment to violence. He took responsibility for the crime, the memo asserts, and his interactions with ISIS members and the FBI demonstrated his “credulity, impressionability, lack of sophistication, and passivity.”
Jalloh’s life was marked by “war, trauma, violence, sexual abuse, and significant cultural and familial upheaval,” the memo said, adding that he was a “brilliant, capable, hardworking, and kind man who had a promising future before becoming involved with extremism.”
One of his lawyers, Ashraf Nubani, said Thursday that he had had no contact with Jalloh since representing him and had no information about the shooting at Old Dominion.
“Any loss of life is tragic and violence against innocent people is completely contrary to Islamic teachings and basic human morality,” Nubani wrote in an email.
At his sentencing, Jalloh told the judge that “this whole crime is not who I am, it is not who I intend to be, and it is not who I have been.” »
“I have made many mistakes in my life, but this mistake of supporting the violent and extremist organization ISIS was the most devastating mistake I have ever decided to make in my life,” he said.
Jalloh apologized to the court, the military and the people of the United States and said, “Every time I see atrocities committed by ISIS, I am disgusted because I know that is not what I want to be a part of.” »
