The professor and Army ROTC instructor killed in a terror attack on a class at Old Dominion University on Thursday was a Staunton native and Charlottesville High School alum.
Lt. Col. Brandon Shah was killed when a former Virginia National Guard member who served time in prison on a 2016 terrorism-related charge opened fire on a classroom at 10:48 a.m. Thursday.
The shooter, Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, 36, who had gotten out of jail in 2024 – still trying to figure out the circumstances there: he’d been given an 11-year sentence in 2017 – was subdued by students in the class and “rendered no longer alive,” according to authorities.
Two students were injured by gunfire before the other students were able to subdue Jalloh, per reports.
Shah was a 2007 ODU alum who had an MBA from the University of Georgia and a master’s degree from the University of Kansas.
Shahn, also a 2002 graduate of Charlottesville High School, was a professor of military science and chair of the Army ROTC department at ODU, according to the school’s website.
Shah attended ODU as an ROTC student, and had 45 months of forward deployed service to Iraq, Afghanistan and Europe, and served as a commander in various operations.
The shooter, Jalloh, was a naturalized U.S. citizen from Sierra Leone who served as a specialist in the Virginia Army National Guard from 2009 until 2015, when he was honorably discharged.
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According to an affidavit filed in his criminal case, Jalloh told a government informant he had quit the National Guard after hearing lectures from radical cleric Anwar al-Awklaki, and said he was contemplating carrying out an attack similar to the 2009 shootings at Fort Hood, which left 13 people dead.
The investigation into Jalloh led to criminal charges and a guilty plea in 2016, and an 11-year sentence handed down in 2017.
Based on the terms of his sentence, Jalloh would have still been under supervised release until 2029.
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Chris Graham
