FBI Investigating Deadly Old Dominion Shooting as Terrorism

One person is dead and two others are wounded after a gunman opened fire in the business school building at Old Dominion University Thursday morning, the Associated Press reported. The shooter, Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, is also dead.

Jalloh, a former member of the Army National Guard, pleaded guilty in 2016 to attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State and was sentenced to 11 years in prison. He was released in December 2024.

According to CBS, Jalloh walked into a classroom on Thursday morning and asked if it was an ROTC class. When someone said it was, he started firing, injuring two people and fatally shooting the instructor, who the Virginian-Pilot has since identified as Lt. Col. Brandon Shah, the head of the university’s Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program and a professor of military science. After Jalloh started firing, students in the class subdued the shooter and one of them killed him with a knife.

Jalloh reportedly yelled “Allahu Akbar” before the shooting, according to the Associated Press.

FBI director Kash Patel posted on X that the bureau is investigating the shooting as an act of terrorism. The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is assisting with the investigation and Virginia governor Abigail Spanberger posted on X that “state support is being mobilized.”

Just after noon, campus officials determined there was no longer an active threat on campus.

“The safety of our campus community is my top priority,” ODU president Brian Hemphill wrote in a message to the university. “We are deeply committed to safeguarding all Monarchs and ensuring a secure learning, living, and working environment at all times.”

At least two of the shooting victims are members of the Army ROTC at the university, Lt. Col. Jimmy Delongchamp, public information officer for the U.S. Army Cadet Command at Fort Knox, Ky., told the Associated Press. “We will continue to coordinate with the university and law enforcement agencies as they investigate the incident,” he said. “There’s still a lot more stuff we have to work out.”

According to ODU’s website, nearly 30 percent of its 24,000 students are military affiliated; the university is located just miles from Naval Station Norfolk, the largest naval installation in the world.