The campus was quiet Friday after the shooting. Classes were cancelled and many students had already left for spring break.
Still, a steady flow of students talked to mental health counselors who had set up in the dining hall, said Joy Himmel, Old Dominion University's counseling services director
“We have many students that we've talked to over the last 24 hours that were there in Constant Hall,” she said. “They heard the shots. They heard the screaming. They heard people shouting to run.”
Some of the students ran to other buildings, while others sought shelter with private residents nearby, Himmel said.
The FBI is investigating the Thursday shooting as an act of terrorism. ROTC instructor and Lt. Col. Brandon Shah was killed, and two other people were injured. The shooter, who the FBI confirmed was Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, was also killed after Shah and students in the classroom subdued him. Jalloh was a former Army National Guardsman and was sentenced to prison in 2017 after pleading guilty to plotting a terrorist attack. He was also an ODU student from fall 2007 to 2013 and reenrolled in the summer of 2025.
“It’s a traumatic event,” Himmel said. “I think everyone that was on the campus or associated with the campus has been impacted in a variety of ways."
ODU’s in-person and virtual counseling services are available to faculty and students. Himmel said those who don’t need professional help will still need family and friends to process what happened.
The surrounding community is also supporting ODU. Norfolk Botanical Garden is offering free admission for ODU students and faculty through March 15. Doug’s Hot Dogs in Norfolk is offering free meals for the ODU community through next week. Latitude Climbing in Norfolk invited ODU students and faculty to go to their gym, climb or take a class for free. Gud Yoga studio in Norfolk is offering free classes this weekend.
“It's easy to feel out of control, like things are out of control,” said Ashley Gudknecht, owner of Gud Yoga studio. “And so one thing that I can control is I can give people yoga.”
The impact of a shooting moves outward like ripples on a pond, said Andrew Goddard, the legislative director at the Virginia Center for Public Safety. Goddard’s son was shot four times during the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007 and survived.
“These things don't have an impact just on the individuals who are hit by bullets, or even their families and friends; it just goes out through the entire community, and we all end up feeling less safe,” Goddard said.
ODU President Brian Hemphill addressed ODU faculty, staff, students and their families in a video Thursday. He said campus safety is a top priority.
“We are committed to examining everything that we can to understand what happened and whether there's anything that we could have done to prevent it,” he said. “We will undertake a thorough review of our safety and security practices to determine whether any changes are appropriate to make our campus even safer. We will be thorough and we will be honest about what we find.”
In a press conference on Friday, Gov. Abigail Spanberger said the state would continue to provide support for the investigation.
“In the event that, you know, we see that there are lapses, I will work with the General Assembly, where there might be local lapses to ensure that we are closing any patchwork holes that allowed for this individual to perhaps gain access to a firearm, or if we see that those lapses occurred at the federal level, I will continue to advocate for changes at the federal level,” she said.
In the meantime, ODU students and faculty, and the Hampton Roads community, will pick up the pieces, grieve and heal. Everyone’s process will look different, said Rev. Joshua McCauley, director and campus minister for the Wesley Foundation at ODU.
“Lamenting can take so many shapes of emotions,” he said. “There are some that are treating today as normal and just kind of going through the motions and aren't taking time to process. There are some that, they're just not ready to process.”
McCauley said he expects more students to seek help after the break.
