FBI Probes ISIS-Linked ODU Shooter After Cadets Kill Gunman in Classroom
An Army ROTC unit is now being credited with stopping a deadly campus shooting, as new details emerge about the officer who died protecting his students.
The March 12 attack at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, left Lt. Col. Brandon Shah dead after a gunman opened fire inside a classroom, according to NBC News.
The suspect, Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, had previously been convicted of attempting to support ISIS and was released from federal custody in 2024, officials said. Authorities say he entered the classroom, asked if it was an ROTC session, and then began shooting.
What followed shifted the outcome. Investigators say multiple cadets rushed the gunman, physically subduing him before police arrived and ending the attack. Two cadets were injured during the confrontation.
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“He put himself between the shooter and the students,” one official said of Shah, according to AP reporting.
The case is now raising broader concerns beyond the campus. Federal authorities are treating the attack as terrorism, and questions are mounting about how a previously convicted individual was able to carry out the assault after release.
The incident also lands amid a continued wave of mass shootings across the United States in 2026, with early tracking data showing the country on pace with recent years that have exceeded hundreds of incidents annually.
Investigators are still reviewing the suspect’s actions, weapon access, and any warning signs leading up to the attack.
For now, the focus remains on the cadets’ actions and the instructor they say made their response possible.
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