National Defense

Shooter At Virginia College Had Conviction For Supporting ISIS

(Screen Capture/Frontline PBS)

The person who was killed after opening fire at Old Dominion University was identified as Mohamed Jalloh, a former National Guardsman who was convicted of supporting the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in 2017, multiple media outlets reported.

Police confirmed that one person had died and two others were wounded in the shooting, USA Today reported. FBI Director Kash Patel announced the agency was probing the shooting as an act of terrorism in a Thursday afternoon post on X.

“Earlier today, an armed individual opened fire at Old Dominion University, leaving one person dead and two others wounded,” Patel said. “The shooter is now deceased thanks to a group of brave students who stepped in and subdued him – actions that undoubtedly saved lives along with the quick response of law enforcement.”

Jalloh met with a member of ISIS in 2016 and a FBI informant, later telling them of his desire to carry out an attack similar to the one carried out on Fort Hood by Nidal Hasan, according to a 2016 Justice Department press release. Prosecutors requested a 20-year sentence in a memo presented to United States District Judge Liam O’Grady, a George W. Bush appointee.

“Fortunately, after his return to the United States, [Abu Saad] Sudani put the defendant in touch with a person who turned out to be an FBI source,” the memo read. “It was the result of Sudani’s actions in brokering the introduction with [the informant] that the FBI learned that the defendant was eager to provide material support to ISIL.”

“Over the next several months, the defendant attempted to provide money to ISIL,” the memo continued. “More chillingly, though, he also attempted to obtain an AK-47 assault rifle for [the informant] as part of what he believed was a plot to murder members of the US military.”

Jalloh was sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2017, according to court documents, but was released in December 2024.