TLDR
Authorities say Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, a former Virginia National Guard soldier previously convicted in a federal ISIS support case, was the gunman in a shooting at Old Dominion University that left one person dead and two others wounded and is being investigated as terrorism.
A deadly shooting at Old Dominion University has renewed scrutiny of how the federal system manages convicted terrorism offenders after release. Investigators have identified the gunman as Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, a 36-year-old naturalized citizen who once wore a U.S. uniform and later aided ISIS.
According to Fox News, the shooting left one person dead and two injured on the Norfolk, Virginia, campus, and Jalloh died after being subdued by students and confronted by law enforcement. The FBI has said it is treating the attack as an act of terrorism, and officials are still building a full timeline of his actions before the gunfire.
From Terrorism Case to Campus Shooting
Jalloh’s path through the federal courts began in 2016, when he was arrested after attempting to help procure weapons for what he believed would be an ISIS-inspired attack and separately trying to send money to the group, according to a criminal complaint cited by Fox News and a 2017 Department of Justice press release. Prosecutors said he had praised the 2015 Chattanooga attack that killed four U.S. Marines and a Navy sailor and talked about carrying out an attack similar to the 2009 Fort Hood shooting.
In 2017, a federal judge sentenced Jalloh to 11 years in prison and five years of supervised release for attempting to provide material support to ISIS, according to the Justice Department. Prosecutors, who had sought a 20-year term, wrote that “The defendant was fully aware of what he was doing, and the consequences of those actions,” portraying him as deeply committed to violent extremist ideology.
Sentencing, Release, and Supervision Questions
Fox News reports that Jalloh was released from federal custody in December 2024, roughly 15 months before the Old Dominion shooting. In federal cases, defendants typically can earn reduced time through good-conduct credits, but the specific calculations in Jalloh’s case have not been publicly detailed.
The Justice Department had emphasized his repeated efforts to support ISIS when it argued for a longer sentence. It is not yet clear what level of supervision he was under at the time of the campus attack, what conditions were imposed, or whether any concerns had been raised by probation officers or other agencies in the months after his release.
Terrorism Investigation and Campus Response
Fox News, citing federal officials, reports that investigators believe Jalloh shouted a religious phrase before opening fire on campus. FBI officials have said their Joint Terrorism Task Force is working with local authorities to examine his communications, movements, and any potential support network in the period leading up to the shooting.
Additional details have been released about today’s attempted mass shooting at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, with reports suggesting that the intended target of the shooter, identified as Ex-National Guardsman Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, 36, was ODU’s Reserve Officers’… pic.twitter.com/9c1vl8ikci
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) March 13, 2026
In a public statement, FBI Director Kash Patel said, “The FBI is now investigating the shooting as an act of terrorism,” and credited students and police with preventing further casualties. Court records and prior Justice Department filings show that Jalloh once attended Old Dominion University and, in a letter seeking leniency in his earlier case, described joining the National Guard as a way to give back to the United States, a portrayal that sharply contrasts with prosecutors’ description of his conduct.
The Old Dominion case now sits at the intersection of campus safety, federal sentencing, and post-release supervision for terrorism offenses. As investigators reconstruct Jalloh’s final months, any future public reporting on his monitoring and risk assessments will help clarify how prior red flags, court decisions, and reentry oversight aligned with the events that ended in gunfire on a university campus.
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