Terrorism ex-convict Mohamed Bailor Jalloh killed by ROTC cadets after deadly campus shooting in Virginia

Mohamed Bailor Jalloh.

Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, 36, walked into a classroom on the campus of Old Dominion University on Thursday, asked whether the class he interrupted was an ROTC class, and when someone responded that it was, he promptly shot the instructor multiple times while shouting Allah Akbar, and then shot two others, wounding them, before students subdued and killed him. 

Jalloh, a former member of the Virginia Army National Guard, has a history of terrorism-related activities. In 2016, he pleaded guilty to trying to support ISIS and was sentenced to 11 years in prison after admitting to federal authorities that he had been planning a Fort Hood-style shooting after being in contact with ISIS, a local NBC station in Virginia reported. Jalloh, was released from prison early, in late December of 2024, less than a month before Biden's lone term as president ended and weeks before Donald Trump was sworn in for a second term. 

The 36-year-old Jalloh was born in Sierra Leone and was a naturalized citizen. Authorities say he killed Lt. Col. Brandon Shah, the instructor who was teaching the ROTC class, a veteran of the Iraq war and a professor of military science at Old Dominion University in Virginia. Shah was also a department chair for the school's ROTC program and an alumnus of the university. Shah was a military aviator who flew more than 600 hours of combat flight missions, according to The New York Post. 

Once Jalloh had fatally shot Shah, he wounded two others in the classroom with gunfire before he was restrained by ROTC students and killed. FBI Special Agent in Charge Dominique Evans gave vague details about how the ROTC students killed Jallon, telling reporters, "They basically were able to terminate the threat." Evans said the students didn't shoot Jalloh, but whatever they did left the terror convict "no longer alive," she said. According to CBS News, one of the students used a knife to kill Jalloh. 

Evans praised the students for showing "extreme bravery and courage" in confronting and neutralizing Jalloh and "stopping further loss of life." She said the FBI is investigating the deadly attack as an act of terrorism. Watch more on the story from Fox News below.