The ROTC cadets getting ready to leave their class at Old Dominion University in Virginia last month had never seen the stranger who entered the room, and they thought maybe he was someone early for the next class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But he seemed nervous when he asked whether it was an ROTC class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI wasn\u2019t thinking about what that question really meant,\u201d Louis Ancheta said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then the man reached into his waist, pulled out a Glock handgun and shouted something \u2014 some heard it as \u201cAllahu Akbar\u201d \u2014 and began firing, the cadets said in a video the Army ROTC shared online Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy first thought was \u2018Is this a drill?\u2019 Because we just talked about force protection,\u201d cadet Oshea Bego said in the video recounting the events of March 12, when a gunman opened fire on the class at the university in Norfolk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnd then, like, when it actually started to happen, I was like, \u2018Oh, this is real,\u2019\u201d cadet Samora Robinson said. \u201cEverybody had dropped down to the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, who had previously been convicted of supporting ISIS, fatally shot the instructor, Army Lt. Col. Brandon A. Shah, and wounded two other people, officials said. Authorities said the attack was an act of terrorism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jalloh, 36, was also killed. Cadets in the video described stabbing him with their pocketknives during a desperate struggle for the gun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shah lunged at Jalloh and started wrestling with him as both men were upright and standing, Ancheta said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ancheta said that he opened his pocketknife as Jalloh fired two shots and that one of the stray shots struck him, leaving a graze wound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCol. Shah finally turns him around. So then after that, I\u2019m like, I\u2019m ready, so I just go in there,\u201d Ancheta said. \u201cJust start stabbing him. As I\u2019m stabbing him, other cadets jump in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A couple of people stabbed at Jalloh during the struggle, and others punched at him before everyone fell to the ground, cadets said in the video.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When they got the handgun away from Jalloh, its magazine was empty and one round was left in the chamber, cadet Wesley Myers said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shah had been shot in the upper thigh. The students said they used a belt as a tourniquet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They called police but didn\u2019t know whether this was the only gunman, the students said. One cadet met police and led them to the scene of the shooting and the wounded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They later learned that Shah had died.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cadet Jah-Ire Urtarte said Shah was almost like a second father. \u201cHe saw the best in us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The students said Shah had a saying: \u201cBe bold, be quick, be gone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf he didn\u2019t lunge at him, you know, I wouldn\u2019t be here right now,\u201d Urtarte said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n