Former ODU Student Suspected in Deadly Classroom Shooting Had Terrorism Conviction

Old Dominion University campus by Faithlessthewonderboy, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 | Image: Jihad Watch

Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, the 36-year-old suspected of opening fire in an Old Dominion University classroom on Thursday—killing the instructor and injuring two others—was a student at the university at the time of the attack.

University spokesman Jonah Grinkewitz confirmed that Jalloh studied geography at ODU. He attended the university intermittently between fall 2007 and 2013 and had reenrolled in the summer of 2025, roughly six months after his release from federal prison.

In 2016, Jalloh pleaded guilty to providing material support to the terrorist organization known as the Islamic State of Iraq. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison followed by five years of supervised release. At the time, he lived in Sterling, Virginia, and had previously served in the Army National Guard. Reports indicate that he had expressed support for other terrorist attacks and, during an investigation, admitted aspirations to conduct one himself.

“Old Dominion University had no knowledge of any prior criminal history for Jalloh,” a university spokesperson stated. Under Virginia law, public colleges cannot inquire about a prospective student’s criminal history or deny admission on that basis.

Grinkewitz noted that the university’s records reflected no prior warning signs before Jalloh’s tragic actions on campus.

(This Article was originally published by Jihad Watch)