03/13/2026
The members of the JMU Duke Battalion Foundation extend our deepest condolences to LTC Shah and his family during this time of loss.
The ROTC community is bound by something that goes far beyond training and service — it is a family. And in times like these, that family shows up. We grieve together, we support one another, and we carry each other forward.
To LTC Shah and your loved ones — you are surrounded by a community that cares deeply for you. You are in our thoughts and prayers.
Lt. Col. Brandon Shah, the Old Dominion University instructor who was fatally shot by 36-year-old Mohamed Bailor Jalloh inside his classroom, was a decorated professor of military science and a department chair at the university's ROTC program. Shah joined the Army in 2003, which included active service, and was deployed in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. Shah was in the middle of teaching an ROTC course Thursday morning when Jalloh, a former Virginia National Guardsman who had served several years in federal prison for trying to support the terror group ISIS, stormed into the classroom and opened fire. According to FBI officials, ROTC students subdued and killed Jalloh while responding to the shooting. https://cbsn.ws/4dkaCpI
