Jalloh, a former Army National Guard member, was barred from possessing a gun after pleading guilty in 2016 to attempting to aid the Islamic State extremist group.
According to the affidavit released Friday, the shooting happened in a “class/meeting” attended by active duty servicemembers and ROTC students. Jalloh twice asked those in the room to confirm that it was an ROTC event before he began to shoot, the document says. Jalloh was taking online classes at the university at the time of the shooting, the filing said.
ROTC students receive a scholarship to attend college while training to become commissioned officers in the U.S. military.
Shooter told colleague he needed a gun for protection
Chapman told agents he had no idea Jalloh would commit the attack, the affidavit says. He is charged with making a false statement during a firearm purchase and engaging in the business of firearms dealing without a license.
Chapman told agents in an interview that he stole the gun from a car in Newport News, Virginia, about a year before the shooting and recently sold it to Jalloh. Chapman said he met Jalloh at work and that Jalloh told him he needed the gun for protection as a delivery driver, according to court papers.
Chapman said he knew Jalloh had spent some time behind bars but denied knowing he had a previous felony conviction, according to the affidavit.
The gun’s serial number was partially obliterated, complicating authorities’ efforts to trace the gun. But authorities ultimately found Chapman through phone records showing multiple calls between him and Jalloh in the week prior to the shooting, according to the affidavit.
Federal authorities had investigated Chapman in 2021 for straw purchases, when someone buys a gun for a person who can’t get it legally themselves. He was issued a “straw purchaser warning letter” and he wrote a letter of apology after admitting to the straw purchases in 2021, according to the document.
Shooter was released early from federal prison
Jalloh, who yelled “Allahu akbar” before opening fire, was subdued and killed by ROTC students, according to FBI officials who praised the students' bravery for preventing further harm. The shooting killed an ROTC leader who was a professor of military science at ODU, and left two others hurt.
One of them, who was hospitalized in critical condition, has been upgraded to fair condition, according to Sentara Health. The other was treated and released.
Jalloh, who was sentenced to 11 years in prison in the Islamic State group case, was released from federal custody in December 2024. He was on supervised release, which is comparable to probation.
He was released about 2 1/2 years early after completing a drug treatment program, a person familiar with the matter told The AP. The person was not authorized to speak publicly and did so on condition of anonymity.
It wasn’t clear how Jalloh qualified for the program, which allows inmates to shave up to a year off their sentences. Inmates serving sentences for terrorism-related offenses typically aren’t eligible for such programs or other sentence-reducing credits.
A message seeking information about Jalloh’s incarceration and release was left with the federal Bureau of Prisons.
Authorities dig for more details
At a news conference Thursday, a reporter asked the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Norfolk field office, Dominique Evans, if there was a mention of the ongoing war in Iran. “None whatsoever,” she replied. The U.S. and Israel launched a war with Iran with missile strikes on Feb. 28.
The FBI has warned that Iranian operatives may be planning drone attacks on targets in California. Two men brought explosives to a far-right protest outside the New York mayoral mansion on Saturday. Investigators allege they were inspired by the Islamic State group. And on Thursday, a man of Lebanese origin was fatally shot after driving his vehicle into a Detroit-area synagogue in what the FBI called a “targeted act of violence against the Jewish community.”
Evans on Thursday also requested the public's help in the investigation, saying no detail is too small.
Old Dominion University Police Chief Garrett Shelton said less than 10 minutes passed between when officers were called about a shooting in the university’s business school building and when responders determined the shooter was dead. Authorities have not said exactly how the ROTC students killed Jalloh, though Evans said they did not shoot him.
The U.S. Army Cadet Command has said on social media that three members of the U.S. Army ROTC program at Old Dominion were injured, including one who died.
Jalloh also had served. The naturalized U.S. citizen from Sierra Leone was a specialist with the Virginia Army National Guard from 2009 until 2015, when he was honorably discharged.
Old Dominion University said Friday that Jalloh, 36, was a student at the school at the time of the shooting. He was originally admitted in fall 2007 as a freshman and was enrolled, intermittently, through spring 2013. He re-enrolled in summer 2025, the university said in an email. He was a geography major from Sterling, Virginia, the university said.
Slain instructor remembered as family man, leader, protector
The victim who died was Lt. Col. Brandon Shah, a 42-year-old from Chesapeake who leaves behind a spouse and a child, the U.S. Army Cadet Command said in a social media post.
Shah attended ODU as an ROTC student, according to his biography on the university’s website, and had returned in 2022 as a leader for the program. In the Army, Shah piloted helicopters over Iraq, Afghanistan and Eastern Europe.
“Above all else, Lt. Col. Shah embodied what it means to be a devoted family man, a revered leader, and heroic protector even in his final moments,” Old Dominion President Brian Hemphill said in a Friday message to the university community.
On campus Friday morning, in honor of his close friend Shah, Eddie Flack poured out a bottle of Wild Turkey on a lawn across from Constant Hall. Flack, also of Chesapeake, said the two became firm friends while enrolled at ODU.
“I love you Brandon. Rest well with the creator. I love you,” Flack said as he poured out the whiskey and looked up at the sky.
“Sorry Brandon. The world needs more love,” Flack said, weeping. “We need to spread more love and not this hatred."
___
Durkin Richer reported from Washington and Sisak reported from New York City. Associated Press reporters Michael Biesecker in Washington; Adrian Sainz in Memphis, Tennessee; Jonathan Mattise in Nashville, Tennessee; John Raby in Cross Lanes, West Virginia; and Olivia Diaz in Richmond, Virginia, contributed.
___
This story has been corrected to show the AP reporter in the byline is Allen G. Breed, not Alan.