A man was charged today for selling a stolen gun to Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, who used it to kill one person and wound two others at Old Dominion University, in an ISIS-inspired shooting.
The charges come a day after the attack by Jalloh, who had previously spent eight years in prison for trying to aid the anti-American terrorist Islamic State group. Jalloh could have received a sentence of 20 years in prison, but received a more lenient sentence from a judge appointed by Barack Obama, and thus was released from prison to commit this mass shooting.
Jalloh yelled “Allahu akbar” before opening fire in a classroom and being killed by ROTC students at Old Dominion University, which is based in Norfolk, Virginia.
As a news report explains,
The shooting happened in a class attended by active duty servicemembers and ROTC students…Jalloh twice asked those in the room to confirm that it was an ROTC event before he began to shoot…
The man charged Friday, Kenya Chapman, told federal 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 knew Jalloh had spent some time behind bars but denied knowing he had a previous felony conviction, which made it illegal for Jalloh to possess a firearm…..Chapman is charged with making a false statement during a firearm purchase and engaging in the business of firearms dealing without a license….
“Chapman allegedly stole a firearm and illegally sold it to a convicted terrorist, who murdered a decorated American veteran, and he will finally face the full weight of justice,” U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said….
The gun’s serial number was partially obliterated, complicating authorities’ efforts to trace the firearm. But authorities ultimately found Chapman through phone records showing multiple calls between him and Jalloh in the week prior to the shooting…Federal authorities had previously investigated Chapman in 2021 for straw purchases, when someone buys a gun for a person who can’t get it legally themselves. He was issued a “straw purchaser warning letter” and he wrote a letter of apology after admitting to the straw purchases in 2021….The case was presented to the U.S. attorney at the time but the office declined to prosecute…
Jalloh was subdued and killed by ROTC students…The shooting killed an ROTC leader who was a professor of military science at ODU.
Jalloh is originally from Sierra Leone, a country in West Africa. But he managed to immigrate to the U.S. and gain U.S. citizenship.
