An attack at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, has seen one person dead and two people injured as FBI investigate the shooting as an attack of terrorism.
The alleged gunman, Mohamed Jalloh, a 36-year-old naturalised U.S. citizen from Sierra Leone, who was also killed during the incident, was said to have entered Constant Hall, the building housing Old Dominion University’s College of Business shortly before 10:49 am on Thursday. He opened fire in a classroom which saw three members of the Army ROTC program at the university shot but students were able to subdue and kill him, stated Dominic Evans, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Norfolk field office.
Students described chaotic scenes as the situation unfolded. One witness saw a person lying motionless outside Constant Hall. “We heard like faint screaming, and we just like looked back, we didn’t know what it was, and then we heard the screams getting louder, and then that’s when the alarm went off, and everyone just like ran out of the building,” one student told local media.
Students showed “extreme bravery and courage” and prevented further loss of life as they “rendered him no longer alive,” Evans said during a news conference.
FBI Director Kash Patel also credited the students’ actions, stating they “without doubt saved lives along with the quick response of law enforcement” and later confirmed the bureau would be investigating the incident as an “act of terrorism”.
Jalloh served in the Virginia National Guard between 2009 and 2015 and according to FBI documentation, Jalloh told investigators that Awlaki’s teachings helped him understand that after ISIS announced its caliphate, “this was the reality”.
He pleaded guilty in October 2016 to trying to provide material support to ISIS. He received an 11-year prison sentence plus five years of supervised release. Authorities released him early in December 2024 and he remained under supervised release at the time he carried out Thursday’s attack.
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