Karol Markowicz, columnist at The New York Post and Fox News, on Thursday reported that a Mohamed Jalloh has been identified as the suspect in the Old Dominion University shooting. This comes after a gunman died and two people are hurt at ODU.
ODU said a gunman opened fire in its business school building, injuring two people who were sent to the hospital. It wasn’t immediately clear how the shooter died. The two people injured are in critical condition, said a spokesperson for Sentera Health, the health care system that oversees the hospital.
Within about an hour of the shooting, ODU declared that there was no longer a threat on the campus.
The public university in Norfolk canceled classes and suspended all operations on its main campus for the rest of Thursday and urged people to avoid the area in and around Constant Hall while emergency officials continued to work.
In a message to the university community, ODU President Brian Hemphill said the school faced a tragedy on campus. He expressed gratefulness for the swift emergency response and thoughts and prayers to those impacted.
“The safety of our campus community is my top priority,” Hemphill wrote. “We are deeply committed to safeguarding all Monarchs and ensuring a secure learning, living, and working environment at all times.”
The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said on the social platform X that it had agents on scene supporting the response.
Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger said in social media posts that she was monitoring the situation and that “state support is being mobilized” to help ODU. She didn’t provide specifics.
The suspect was not officially identified.
More info on Mohamed Jalloh
Markowicz further shared a DOJ press release, which showed that Jalloh, from Sterling, Virginia, was arrested on July 3, 2016 on charges related to attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
The criminal complaint alleged that Jalloh sought to assist the terrorist group by helping acquire weapons that he believed would be used in an attack on US soil carried out in ISIL’s name. Prosecutors also say he attempted to send money to support individuals trying to join the organization.
Authorities said Jalloh’s arrest followed several months of monitoring by federal investigators. In June 2016, he traveled to North Carolina and made repeated attempts to obtain firearms, though those efforts were unsuccessful. On July 2, he went to a gun dealership in northern Virginia where he purchased and test-fired a Stag Arms assault rifle. Investigators had already rendered the rifle inoperable before he left the dealership with it. Jalloh was arrested the following day, and the FBI seized the weapon.
