‘I Start Stabbing Him’: Student Heroes At Old Dominion Lay Out How They Took Down A Terrorist

The heroic ROTC cadets who stopped the terrorist at Old Dominion University in March described their experience beating and stabbing the attacker.

The shooter, former National Guard soldier Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, killed one and injured two in the March 12 attack, The Daily Wire previously reported. Jalloh was pronounced dead when police arrived on the scene.

“There were students that were in that room that subdued him and rendered him no longer alive,” Dominique Evans, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Norfolk office, said at the time. “They basically were able to terminate the threat.”

Jalloh entered a classroom at Old Dominion and “nervously” asked if it was an ROTC class. Cadet Wesley Myers said Jalloh, who was previously convicted of supporting ISIS, shouted “Allahu Akbar” and opened fire on class instructor Lieutenant Colonel Brandon Shah.

Shah later died from his injuries.

“I saw my instructor kinda lunge at him, and when I got under the desk, I saw them together,” Cadet Jah-Ira Utarte said. “If he didn’t lunge at him, I wouldn’t be here right now. There’s a possibility he could’ve turned his gun and I could’ve been next.”

????#BREAKING: For the first time, the ROTC students at Old Dominion University, who BEAT THE TERR*RIST TO DEATH WITHOUT GUNS are now telling their stories.

“He sho*ts a stray, it hits me, but I thought I could keep going… I get there and just start st*bbing him, as I’m st*bbing… pic.twitter.com/LaMTF9Tvtv

— Matt Van Swol (@mattvanswol) April 10, 2026

Cadet Louis Ancheta pulled out his pocket knife and ran up to Jalloh while Shah wrestled him.

“With my pocketknife, I open it, I run up, and as I’m running up, Colonel Shah lunges at the guy,” Ancheta said. “[Jalloh] shoots another stray, and it hits me. It really didn’t feel like it hit me. It felt like a graze. After that, I’m like, ‘I can keep on going.'”

Shah turned Jalloh around and gave Ancheta an opening to strike, the cadet said.

“I just go in there, and I start stabbing him,” Ancheta said. “As I’m stabbing him, other cadets jump in.”

Myers and Cadet Jeremy Rawlinson tried to wrest the gun away from Jalloh.

“We did what we tried to do to get the gun away from him, and he just wasn’t letting go,” Rawlinson said. “I just happened to have a knife on me at the time. Ancheta and I, we were, like, neutralizing the guy.”

As the cadets brought Jalloh to the ground, Myers wrenched away the gun, which only had one bullet left.

The cadets then switched to “combat care” to help Ancheta.

“It’s different when it’s not a mannequin, and it’s your friend,” Myers said.

The FBI is investigating the shooting as an act of terrorism. Director Kash Patel praised the cadets in a social media post March 12.

“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,” Patel said.