The US Department of Justice on Friday charged a man who authorities say sold a gun to the Old Dominion University (ODU) shooter despite the gunman’s previous conviction in a terrorism case.
Kenya Chapman is facing federal charges in connection to the sale of the weapon to Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, a former army national guard member who yelled “Allahu Akbar” before he opened fire in a classroom at the Virginia school on Thursday, according to authorities.
One person was killed and two others were injured in the shooting.
Jalloh was barred from possessing a gun given a previous felony conviction for attempting to aid the Islamic State (IS) extremist group.
Chapman was 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 told agents he knew Jalloh had spent some time behind bars but denied knowing he had a previous felony conviction.
Chapman told agents he had no idea the man would commit the attack, the affidavit says.
Earlier on Friday, a law enforcement official told the Associated Press that Jalloh used a gun with an obliterated serial number, potentially complicating investigators’ efforts to determine how he obtained the firearm.
Jalloh pleaded guilty in 2016 to attempting to aid the IS extremist group.
Jalloh 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 injured.
According to the affidavit released on Friday, the “class/meeting” was attended by both active duty service members and ROTC students. Jalloh twice asked those in the room to confirm that it was an ROTC event before he began to shoot, the complaint said.
Jalloh, who was sentenced to 11 years in prison in the Islamic State case, was released from federal custody in December 2024. He was on supervised release, which is comparable to probation.
At a news conference on 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 US and Israel launched a war on Iran with missile strikes on 28 February.
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 IS 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”.
The victim who died in the attack on ODU was Lt Col Brandon Shah, a 42-year-old from Chesapeake who leaves behind a spouse and a child, the US army cadet command at the school 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,” ODU’s president, Brian Hemphill, said in a Friday message to the university community.
