ISIS-supporting ex-National Guard member Mohamed Bailor Jalloh shouted “Allahu Akbar” before launching his deadly attack at Old Dominion University on Thursday, federal officials revealed.
Jalloh, 36, busted into a Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) classroom at the Virginia college and yelled the Arabic phrase, which translates to “God is Great,” before opening fire, killing a retired military officer and injuring two others, FBI Special Agent Dominique Evans said at a press conference.
The FBI is investigating the shooting as an act of terrorism.
Mohamed Bailor Jalloh has been identified as the shooter who killed an ROTC instructor on the campus of Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va., on March 12, 2026.
Evans wasn’t sure how many students were in the classroom during the shooting, or if the ROTC program was targeted.
But sources previously told The Post that Jalloh asked if the class was for the ROTC, and opened fire after someone confirmed it was.
Jalloh, a naturalized US citizen originally from Sierra Leone, fatally shot the course’s instructor. Two other ROTC members injured in the attack are both in stable condition.
Evans praised the students who showed “extreme bravery and courage in containing the shooter and stopping further loss of life.”
Law enforcement sources told The Post that one heroic ROTC cadet fatally stabbed Jalloh.
Horrified students described the harrowing moment their classmates started pouring out of ODU’s Constant Hall.
Jalloh was previously convicted of trying to support ISIS.
“All of a sudden, I hear like just a bunch of bodies hitting each other like this loud altercation,” one student, only identified as Calvin, told 13NewsNow.
Calvin said he observed “a person in a tan coat” lying prone on the ground near
the campus’ Starbucks cafe while others took cover in any accessible building.
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“People started running out of the building…there was yelling, screaming,” he said.
He said an employee hauled him and his girlfriend into the Webb University Building, a student center, where they locked down until authorities swept the scene hours later.
Juliet Grossman, another ODU student, told WAVY that she “heard a thing pop” followed by a cacophony of screams.
Jalloh yelled “Allahu Akbar” before opening fire in the classroom.
“I thought first it was like boys, you know, playing around, you know how they chase each other, but then I started hearing people say ‘Shooter. Shooter’,” Grossman recounted.
Grossman hid in the Diehn School of Music for a half-hour, frantically texting her loved ones until she was given the all-clear.
ODU junior Christian Scruggs, who hunkered down in the Student Recreation and Well-Being Center, said he only hid for half an hour, but noted those who rushed inside the Webb Building had to wait much longer.
The FBI said it will be opening a tipline for the investigation.
Jalloh was released from prison in December 2024.
Evans said they are trying to retrace Jalloh’s steps leading up to the attack and track down anyone who may have supported him.
Jalloh was sentenced to 11 years in prison for offering material support to ISIS, then known as ISIL, in 2017.
The ISIS admirer met with members of the terrorist organization during a six-month trip to Africa in 2016. He alluded to executing his own terror attack inspired by the 2009 mass shooting in Ft. Hood, Texas, where a US Army major shouted “allahu akbar” before he fatally shot 13 people and injured 32 others.
Police responding to the scene of the shooting at Old Dominion. Kendall Warner/The Virginian-Pilot via AP
Sometime during the trip, Jalloh also told an FBI source that he would plan an attack during the month of Ramadan, according to the DOJ.
Ramadan, a holy month observed by Muslims worldwide, ends on March 19 this year.
Jalloh was released from prison in December 2024. The Post reached out to the DOJ and FBI for information about his release.
Police evcuate bystanders from the Old Dominion campus after the shooting. Kendall Warner/The Virginian-Pilot via AP
At Jalloh’s three-story townhouse in Sterling, Virginia, The Post observed a sign taped to his door that read, “We don’t want to talk to the press.” There was no visible police presence as of Thursday evening.
Margie Womer, who lives two doors down, told The Post that she never noticed anything about the unsuspecting home that led her to believe an ISIS supporter lived there.
Kenneth Brown, an Army veteran who lives one street over, told The Post he used to see Jalloh in the neighborhood before his 2016 arrest, but not since his release.
“I would pass him walking in the neighborhood. He would always look at the ground. He would never look at me and he just kept walking,” Brown said.
“He never said much. He really didn’t. He kind of, every time you see him, he’s by himself, almost like a loner. He was always by himself. He never, I never seen him with anybody, friends or girlfriend, nothing, you know, just by himself,” he added.