Mohamed Jalloh: From ISIS Conviction to ODU Shooting

Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, the gunman in the Old Dominion University shooting on March 12, 2026, was a naturalized U.S. citizen from Sierra Leone and a former Virginia Army National Guard specialist who had already been convicted in 2016 of attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State. He was serving an 11-year federal sentence for that offense but was released roughly two and a half years early in December 2024. Fifteen months later he walked into an ROTC gathering in Constant Hall, killed Lt. Col. Brandon Shah, wounded two students, and was subdued and killed by cadets in the room.¹

Who Mohamed Jalloh Was

Jalloh was born in Sierra Leone in September 1989 and later naturalized as a U.S. citizen.² He served in the Virginia Army National Guard from April 2009 to April 2015. According to an FBI affidavit, he radicalized during his Guard service after listening to online lectures by the deceased al-Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, came to view resistance to U.S. military operations abroad as a religious obligation, and treated the ISIS caliphate as legitimate. He quit the National Guard as a result.³

The 2016 ISIS Material-Support Case

Between July 2015 and January 2016, Jalloh traveled to Africa. In Nigeria he connected via social media with Abu Saad Sudani, a Sudanese ISIS member in Libya who recruited English-speaking foreign fighters. Jalloh sent money to an ISIS facilitator in the region to help move recruits into ISIS-controlled territory and attempted to reach Libya himself, abandoning the trip in Niger and returning to the United States through Sierra Leone.⁴

Back in Virginia, Sudani introduced him online in late March 2016 to what Jalloh believed was a fellow sympathizer; the contact was an FBI confidential human source. The two met in person on April 9, 2016, in Sterling, Virginia. In May the informant introduced Jalloh to an undercover FBI agent posing as an ISIS member overseas.⁵

Over the following weeks Jalloh transferred $500 to the undercover agent, believing the money would support ISIS fighters. He also discussed carrying out a domestic attack modeled on the 2009 Fort Hood massacre, telling the informant that such an operation during Ramadan was “100 percent the right thing.” In June 2016 he traveled to North Carolina in an unsuccessful attempt to obtain firearms. On July 1 and 2, 2016, he visited the Blue Ridge Arsenal in Chantilly, Virginia, test-fired and bought a Stag Arms 5.56 caliber rifle that the FBI had already rendered inoperable, and was arrested the next day.⁶

On October 27, 2016, Jalloh pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia to one count of attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization. His defense asked for 78 months, calling him psychologically vulnerable and arguing that every step had been taken “at the direction, urging, or importuning of another person.” Prosecutors pointed to comparable terrorism cases that drew 20 years or more, and the court calculated a guidelines range “far above the 20-year maximum” after applying the terrorism enhancement.⁷ On February 10, 2017, U.S. District Judge Liam O’Grady sentenced him to 11 years in prison and ordered substance abuse and mental health treatment, including evaluation for the Bureau of Prisons’ Residential Drug Abuse Program. His plea agreement also provided for up to a lifetime of supervised release after his prison term.⁸

How He Got Out Early

Jalloh served about eight years of the 11-year sentence. In August 2024 the Bureau of Prisons transferred him from a low-security federal prison in Allenwood, Pennsylvania, to a residential reentry center in the Baltimore area. He was released from federal custody on December 23, 2024.⁹

According to Associated Press reporting cited at the time, Jalloh received a sentence reduction after completing the Bureau of Prisons’ Residential Drug Abuse Program, which can trim up to one year off a sentence. How he qualified has not been publicly explained. Under the First Step Act, inmates convicted of terrorism-related offenses are generally ineligible for “good conduct time” credits and for programs of this kind.¹⁰ Even accepting the drug program’s maximum one-year reduction, reporting noted no public account of an additional year and a half shaved from his sentence.¹¹

A May 2026 report by the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General described broader problems in how the Bureau of Prisons administered First Step Act programs. Between fiscal years 2022 and 2024, nearly a quarter of inmates released under First Step Act authorities had not completed a single program, because the bureau was awarding time credits for “willingness to participate” rather than requiring actual completion.¹²

Life on Supervised Release

After release, Jalloh lived in a home in Sterling, Virginia, on supervised release scheduled to run until 2029. A law enforcement affidavit said his probation officer visited every six months, with the last recorded visit in November 2025, about four months before the attack.⁹ He was enrolled as an online student at Old Dominion University.¹⁰

The March 12, 2026 Attack

On the morning of March 12, 2026, Jalloh entered Constant Hall during an Army ROTC gathering. The FBI said he asked twice to confirm it was an ROTC event, shouted “Allahu Akbar,” and opened fire. He killed Lt. Col. Brandon Shah, the ROTC chair and professor of military science, and wounded two students who were hospitalized in stable condition.¹³

The weapon was a Glock .22-caliber handgun that Jalloh had obtained the night before. As a convicted felon he could not legally purchase or possess a firearm. Kenya Mcchell Chapman, a Virginia man, allegedly sold him the stolen pistol for $100 after Jalloh said he needed it for protection as a delivery driver. The gun’s serial number had been partially obliterated. Chapman was later charged federally with illegally selling the firearm.¹⁴¹⁵

How the Attack Was Stopped

Shah was shot but charged the gunman anyway, an act his cadets credited with saving their lives. Several students then rushed Jalloh. Cadet Louis Ancheta stabbed him with a pocket knife and was struck in the chest by a round during the struggle. Cadet Jeremy Rawlinson also attacked with a knife. Cadet Wesley Myers pried the weapon from Jalloh’s hands, removed the magazine, and cleared the chamber.¹⁶ Police received the first calls at 10:43 a.m. and arrived at 10:47 a.m. By 10:50 a.m., officers confirmed Jalloh was dead.¹

The Terrorism Investigation

FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed the shooting is being investigated as an act of terrorism.¹⁷ Investigators suspect Jalloh was driven by a longstanding fixation on the 2009 Fort Hood massacre. During the 2016 investigation he had expressed admiration for the Fort Hood perpetrator and discussed carrying out a similar strike targeting U.S. military personnel. That he confirmed the ODU room was an ROTC event before opening fire tracked with that pattern. Agents retrieved his cellphone and retraced his movements in the days before the attack, including visits to his Sterling home, the ODU campus, and an Islamic center. No manifesto has been publicly reported.¹

Political Fallout

The attack drew immediate scrutiny of two policy questions: how a terrorism convict was released from federal prison years early, and how he was admitted to a public university without his criminal history being flagged. Rep. John McGuire of Virginia called the shooting “preventable” and criticized a 2019 Virginia law, signed by then-Governor Ralph Northam, that prohibits public colleges from questioning applicants about their criminal history. State Sen. Glen Sturtevant called for an “explanation and accounting” from the law’s authors, arguing it may have kept ODU from identifying Jalloh’s terrorism conviction. At the federal level, Majority Whip Tom Emmer and Rep. Jen Kiggans introduced the SCAM Act, which would allow the government to denaturalize and deport individuals within 10 years of naturalization who join terrorist organizations or commit serious crimes.¹⁸

1
CNN. Mohamed Bailor Jalloh and the Old Dominion University Shooting
2
U.S. Department of Justice. Criminal Complaint Affidavit, Mohamed Bailor Jalloh
3
Counter Extremism Project. Mohamed Bailor Jalloh
4
The Jamestown Foundation. Mohammed Jalloh Is Foreign Fighter Turned U.S. Domestic Terrorist
5
U.S. Department of Justice. Statement of Facts, United States v. Jalloh
6
U.S. Department of Justice. Former Army National Guardsman Sentenced for Attempting to Provide Material Support to ISIL
7
The Daily Caller. Jalloh Sentencing Transcript
8
George Washington University Program on Extremism. Plea Agreement, United States v. Jalloh
9
NBC Washington. Old Dominion Shooter Convicted of Islamic State Ties Released From Prison Just Two Years Before Attack
10
PBS NewsHour. Old Dominion Shooter Was Previously Convicted of Islamic State Ties
11
New York Post. Old Dominion Terrorist Mohamed Bailor Jalloh Was Released From Prison Early
12
U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General. Evaluation of the BOP Implementation of the First Step Act
13
New York Post. Old Dominion University Gunman Identified as Former National Guardsman
14
CNN. Arrest in Gun Sold in Old Dominion Attack
15
U.S. Department of Justice. Virginia Man Charged With Illegally Selling Firearm Used in Campus Shooting at Old Dominion University
16
NBC Washington. Cadets Recount How ROTC Leader and Members Subdued Gunman
17
NBC News. Gunman Dead, Two People Injured in Shooting at Old Dominion University
18
Office of Rep. John McGuire. Democrat-Passed Law May Have Allowed Shooter to Enter Old Dominion Undetected