Old Dominion University shooting suspect tried to buy guns in Charlotte in 2016
The man law enforcement officials say opened fire at Old Dominion University on Thursday previously tried to buy guns in Charlotte that would help terrorists.
Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, 36, opened fire at the Norfolk, Virginia, college, according to national news outlets. At press time, two victims were reported to be in stable condition, and another had died. Jalloh also died.
A former National Guardsman, Jalloh reportedly targeted an ROTC class on Thursday.
About a decade before the shooting, he tried to buy guns in the Charlotte area to support ISIS, according to court records and past reporting by The Charlotte Observer.
On June 18, 2016, Jalloh traveled to the Charlotte area and spent hours trying to buy an AK-47 and other weapons, according to a court filing. No one would sell to him, the filing said.
About a month after his trip to North Carolina, he tested and bought an assault rifle in Virginia, according to a news release from federal prosecutors after he was sentenced. He did not know the weapon had already been made inoperable, and the next day the FBI arrested him and seized the gun.
A member of ISIS had introduced Jalloh to a contact in the United States, but that contact was actually an FBI informant.
Jalloh was sentenced to 11 years in prison and five years of supervised release at the time, according to the news release. A Federal Bureau of Prisons database says he was out of custody by Dec. 23, 2024.
Ryan Oehrli covers criminal justice in the Charlotte region for The Charlotte Observer. His work is produced with financial support from the nonprofit The Just Trust. The Observer maintains full editorial control of its journalism.