Old Dominion University Shooting: Suspect convicted of Islamic State ties freed 2 years before attack

NORFOLK, Va. - Court records show that less than two years after Mohamed Bailor Jalloh was released from federal prison for attempting to aid the Islamic State, he opened fire in a classroom at Virginia’s Old Dominion University on Thursday before ROTC students subdued and killed him.

Old Dominion University Update

The shooting left one person dead and two others injured, raises questions about why Jalloh, identified by the FBI as the gunman, had been released and under what conditions. 

Several elected officials are now asking how someone with known ties to the Islamic State was able to carry out such an attack.

RELATED: Victim killed in Old Dominion University shooting identified as Lt. Col. Brandon Shah

"The horrific tragedy that occurred today on ODU's campus never should have happened," U.S. Rep. Jen Kiggans, who represents a neighboring district, wrote on Facebook.

Jalloh pleaded guilty in October 2016 to providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization. 

RELATED: 'Act of terrorism': Gunman dead after killing 1, injuring 2 at Old Dominion University

A federal judge sentenced him in 2017 to an 11‑year prison term, with credit for time served dating back to his July 2016 arrest.

He was released from federal custody on Dec. 23, 2024. It remains unclear why he was freed early. Federal inmates can earn time off their sentences for several reasons, but it’s not yet known whether any applied in Jalloh’s case.

Old Dominion University Victim Identified

The victim killed in a shooting at Old Dominion University on Thursday has been identified as a military science professor and ROTC instructor at the school.

Shah is listed on the university's website as a professor of military science in ODU’s Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps and served as the department chair.

They say Shah was a Virginia native who joined the Army in 2003 as an Aviation Operations Specialist. He was also a graduate of ODU himself, and also earned an MBA from the University of Georgia, and a master's from the University of Kansas.

Suspected Old Dominion Shooter Mohamed Jalloh

Federal officials confirmed to Fox News Thursday that the suspected shooter had been identified as Mohamed Bailor Jalloh from Sterling, Virginia.

Jalloh, a former member of the Army National Guard, was sentenced in 2017 to 11 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to trying to provide material support to ISIS. He was released in December 2024.

According to Fox News, Jalloh was a naturalized U.S. citizen from Sierra Leone.

According to the Justice Department, Jalloh met members of ISIS during a trip to Africa. When he returned to the U.S., one of the ISIS members he met connected Jalloh to a contact who was actually an FBI source.

Officials said Jalloh told the source that he had "thought about conducting an attack all the time, and that he was close to doing so at one point," like the 2009 attack at Fort Hood in Texas that killed 13 and wounded 32 others.

Federal officials arrested Jalloh in July 2016, after purchasing a rifle at a gun dealership in Northern Virginia.

RELATED: What we know about Mohamed Jalloh: Suspected Old Dominion shooter