An independent investigation commissioned by Old Dominion University has concluded that federal and state officials failed to warn the school that a returning student who carried out a deadly shooting on campus in March had previously been convicted of attempting to support the Islamic State terror group. The March 12 attack at an ROTC classroom left one Army veteran instructor dead and two students wounded before the gunman was fatally subdued by ROTC members.
According to the university-commissioned report, Mohamed Bailor Jalloh yelled «Allahu Akbar» before opening fire. Jalloh had been convicted in 2016 of attempting to provide material support to ISIS in a plot targeting U.S. military personnel. The report found that neither his federal probation officer, the FBI, nor any state or federal agency notified ODU of his conviction. The investigators stated that had the university known about Jalloh's criminal history, «it is highly likely that ODU would have sought his removal from campus due to the risk he posed, particularly to military-affiliated individuals.»
In response, the FBI told news outlets that it does not serve as a notification authority for colleges regarding an individual's criminal history, describing it as a shared responsibility across state, local, federal and community partners. The bureau also noted that Jalloh's terrorism-related convictions were widely publicized by the Department of Justice in 2016 and 2017, with multiple press releases still available on the agency's website. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia issued similar public information at the time of Jalloh's sentencing.
ODU stated that under Virginia law enacted in 2022, public universities are prohibited from asking applicants about their criminal history during the admissions process. In compliance, ODU removed criminal history questions from its applications, leaving the university dependent on voluntary student disclosures or notifications from outside law enforcement. Under Jalloh's federal supervised release, his probation officer reportedly had the authority to require him to disclose his criminal record to third parties, but no such notification was provided to any university office or campus police.
The report also noted that Jalloh never voluntarily disclosed his 2016 terrorism conviction to ODU. While Virginia law allows public universities to inquire about criminal history after an applicant is admitted, ODU's policy at the time only sent post-admission background questionnaires to first-time students, excluding readmitted returning students like Jalloh. According to the campus investigation, Jalloh first enrolled at ODU in 2007, was academically suspended in 2010, and was readmitted in 2011 after serving in the Army National Guard. He took classes through spring 2012 before stopping for unknown reasons. He was convicted on federal terrorism charges in 2016 and served eight years in prison before being released in December 2024. He applied for readmission as a returning student and was re-enrolled in 2025.
After Jalloh's case exposed a gap in the university's post-admission screening policies, ODU announced it had expanded its criminal history questionnaire to include readmitted students alongside first-time students. The report said nothing else on Jalloh's readmission application raised any concerns; his application listed a private residential address in Virginia rather than a federal prison address, and two professors who taught him in the months before the attack reported no behavioral concerns. The United States Probation and Pretrial Services Eastern District of Virginia did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The independent investigation emphasized that given Virginia law's reliance on student self-disclosure, it is even more critical for law enforcement agencies to share information universities need to safeguard their students. «This critical failure led to tragic consequences here,» the report concluded.
