Pentagon leaders award 2 Purple Hearts to Old Dominion cadets who took down ISIS supporter
The Army’s top civilian and enlisted leaders awarded eight Meritorious Service Medals and two Purple Hearts to Old Dominion University ROTC cadets who stopped the March 12 gunman later identified by the FBI as Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, a former National Guardsman convicted in a case tied to support for the Islamic State.
In a private ceremony this week, Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll and Sgt. Maj. of the Army Michael Weimer honored the cadets for their actions during the attack inside an ROTC classroom, according to U.S. Army Cadet Command on Facebook. The cadets’ names were withheld for privacy.
Federal authorities have said the cadets subdued and killed Jalloh after he opened fire, killing military science professor Lt. Col. Brandon Shah, 42, and wounding two others during their class at Old Dominion in Norfolk, Virginia.
One cadet was hospitalized in critical condition, while the other was treated and released after the deadly melee.
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The Purple Heart is awarded to members of the U.S. armed forces who are wounded, killed or die from wounds received in combat, while a prisoner of war, or in action against an enemy force.
The Meritorious Service Medal is the noncombatant service equivalent of the Bronze Star.
It has not been made clear how many students were in the class at the time of the shooting, which the FBI has described as an act of terrorism, hailing the cadets’ intervention to prevent additional casualties.
"There were students that were in that room that subdued him, and, uh, rendered him no longer, uh, alive," according to Dominique Evans, special agent in charge of the FBI's Norfolk field office, in news conference remarks that raised an outpouring of American pride on social media.
"I don't know how else to say it," Evans said. "They basically were able to terminate the threat."
They heroically did so without guns.
Jalloh "was not shot," she added, as reports indicated the cadets killed the ISIS-linked assassin by stabbing him to death.
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Jalloh's ability to carry out an ISIS-inspired attack in the U.S. during President Donald Trump's military strikes on Iran occurred after he had been released early by President Joe Biden's Justice Department despite his conviction on terrorism-related charges.
Jalloh had pleaded guilty in 2016 to attempting to provide material support to ISIS and had been released from federal custody in December 2024 to mere supervised probation, which failed to prevent the attack.
He was released about 2 1/2 years early after completing a drug treatment program, a person familiar with the matter told the AP. The person was not authorized to speak publicly and did so on condition of anonymity.
It was not clear how Jalloh qualified for the program, which allows inmates to shave up to a year off their sentences. Inmates serving sentences for terrorism-related offenses typically are not eligible for such programs or other sentence-reducing credits.
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Old Dominion University Police Chief Garrett Shelton said less than 10 minutes passed between when officers were called about a shooting in the university’s business school building and when responders determined the shooter was dead.
"The shooter is now deceased thanks to a group of brave students who stepped in and subdued him – actions that undoubtedly saved lives along with the quick response of law enforcement," FBI Director Kash Patel wrote March 12 on X.
Three members of the U.S. Army ROTC program at Old Dominion were wounded, including one who died. Jalloh also had served. The naturalized U.S. citizen from Sierra Leone was a specialist with the Virginia Army National Guard from 2009 until 2015, when he was honorably discharged.
Shah, 42, was the university’s professor of military science and a former ODU ROTC cadet who returned in 2022 to lead the program.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.