The gunman who opened fire on an Old Dominion University classroom was previously convicted of supporting ISIS and, according to court documents, was on probation for that terrorism-related charge when he carried out Thursday\u2019s deadly attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One person was killed and two were injured in the shooting. The suspect, identified by an FBI spokesman as Mohammed Bailor Jalloh, 36, was also killed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The mortally wounded victim was identified as Army Lt. Col. Brandon A. Shah. U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll said the two people injured at the university were Army personnel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The attack at the campus in Norfolk, Virginia, is being investigated as an act of terrorism, FBI officials said. It comes a decade after Jalloh pleaded guilty to attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, ISIS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dominique Evans, special agent in charge of the agency’s Norfolk field office, said that he shouted “Allahu Akbar” and was subdued by students who “rendered him no longer alive.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jalloh served in the Virginia National Guard from 2009 to 2015 as a combat engineer, military officials said. He had no deployments and was honorably discharged, the officials said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was arrested the following year on the terrorism charge, court documents show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 11 years in prison and five years of probation. He was also ordered to participate in a computer monitoring program, according to a transcript of his sentencing. Jalloh 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to a government sentencing memo, Jalloh sent gift card codes to an undercover FBI employee who he believed was a member of ISIS. He traveled to North Carolina in 2016 to try to buy an AK-47 for what the memo described as a “plot to murder US military personnel.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The owner refused to sell it, according to the memo, and he bought an AR-15 at a gun store. Jalloh was arrested the next day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a separate sentencing memo, his defense team described his “radical ideals” as a shallow search for identity and purpose that did not represent a commitment to violence. He took responsibility for the crime, the memo argues, and his interactions with ISIS operatives and the FBI demonstrated his \u201cgullibility, impressionability, lack of sophistication, and passivity.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jalloh\u2019s life was marked by \u201cwar, trauma, violence, sexual abuse, and significant cultural and familial dislocation,\u201d the memo states, adding that he was a \u201cbright, capable, hard-working, and kind man who had a promising future prior to his dalliance with extremism.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of his attorneys, Ashraf Nubani, said Thursday that he’d had no contact with Jalloh since he represented him and he had no information about the shooting at Old Dominion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At his sentencing, Jalloh told the judge that \u201cthis entire crime is not who I am, it\u2019s not who I plan to be, and it\u2019s not who I have been.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019ve made a lot of mistakes in my life, but this mistake of giving any support to the violent and extreme organization ISIS has been the most devastating one I have ever decided to make in my life,\u201d Jalloh said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jalloh apologized to the court, the military and the people of the United States and said: “Every time I see any atrocities that ISIS commits, I am disgusted by it because I know this is not what I want to be a part of.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n