Old Dominion shooter bought gun used in attack on ROTC classroom from Virginia man, ATF says

Peter Dujardin, The Virginian-Pilot on Mar 13, 2026

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NORFOLK, Va. — A Virginia man was charged in federal court Friday with selling Mohamed Jalloh the gun that was used in the attack at Old Dominion University.

Jalloh bought it from the man during the last week for $100, according to an affidavit filed Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Jalloh was still on supervised release from a 2017 prison sentence — and barred from carrying firearms — when he barged into an Army ROTC classroom at Old Dominion University on Thursday morning.

He was carrying a loaded Glock 44 .22-caliber pistol with a partially obliterated serial number, according to the newly filed court documents in U.S. District Court in Norfolk.

“Before beginning to shoot, Jalloh twice asked individuals in the room to confirm that it was an ROTC event,” the documents say.

After yelling “Allahu akbar” — or "God is great" in Arabic — Jalloh fired multiple rounds at Army Lt. Col. Brandon Shah, who was leading the class.

Shah died later at the hospital.

Two ROTC students were also shot. Several students rushed and tackled Jalloh, with one of the students pulling out a knife and stabbing Jalloh, killing him at the scene, according to a source close to the investigation.

The affidavit, written by ATF Special Agent Brian J. Gleason, was released Friday after the U.S. attorney’s office charged a Smithfield man, Kenya Chapman, of selling Jalloh the Glock handgun.

Chapman said he stole the gun a year ago from a vehicle in Marshall Courts, a federal housing complex in Southeast Newport News.

The FBI said Chapman said he knew Jalloh from work, and identified him to federal agents as the person who bought the gun from him. Chapman “showed agents the $100 bill provided to him by Jalloh for the firearm,” the affidavit said.

According to Chapman, Jalloh said he needed the gun for protection as a delivery driver, with Chapman adding that he had no idea that Jalloh would commit the ODU shooting attack.” Chapman told agents that he didn’t notice that the serial number had been altered.

According to the affidavit, the deceased Jalloh was initially identified at the scene of the shooting with an identification card he had been wearing.

Though he had recently been taking online classes at ODU, Jalloh had lived in Loudoun County, in Northern Virginia, with his sister. A federal probation officer would visit him every six months, with the last visit having been on Nov. 17.

Detectives with the ODU Police Department reported that closed circuit TV cameras had captured Jalloh leaving a Nissan Altima at 9:40 a.m. Thursday — or about an hour and 10 minutes before the shooting.

He parked it on the school’s campus, in a parking lot near the Islamic Center on West 49th Street, the affidavit said. The ODU Detectives “observed Jalloh going back and forth” to the car, the affidavit said.

After the shooting, police seized Jalloh’s black iPhone from the scene.

It turned out that Chapman was among the more frequently called contacts in the phone, with six calls between them between March 6-12.

Phone tracking data indicated that Jalloh’s phone traveled from near ODU to Smithfield, staying for about an hour and a half before arriving in the area of the Islamic Center of Hampton.

At 11:23 on March 11, Jalloh’s phone arrived near Chapman’s Smithfield residence, staying in that area overnight, the ATF affidavit said. The phone left the Smithfield house on the morning of March 12 and traveled to ODU.

Flock Safety surveillance cameras also captured the Nissan’s movements.

The ATF affidavit says the ATF and the Newport News Police Department investigated Chapman’s gun purchases in 2021.

The affidavit said Chapman had straw purchased both firearms that were used in a Sept. 6, 2021 shooting in Newport News. The shooting on Wickham Avenue left a 17-year-old dead and a 20-year-old wounded. He also had straw purchased a gun recovered from a Newport News drunk in public case the same year.

Under a typical straw purchase, someone with a clean criminal record goes into a licensed gun shop and purchases a firearm, later selling it someone who’s not allowed to have a gun.

“Chapman was interviwed and admitted to straw purchashing all three firearms,” the affidavit said. “ATF issued Chapman a straw purchaser warning letter and Chapman wrote a letter of apology.”

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