US lawmaker Riley Moore has voiced outrage over the early release of Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, the attacker at Old Dominion University who killed one person and injured two others, despite documented links to a terrorist group in Nigeria.
On Friday, Moore reacted to Thursday’s shooting in a statement on his social media page, highlighting a 2017 Department of Justice record that sentenced Jalloh to 11 years in prison for providing material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a designated foreign terrorist organisation.
“The radical Islamic terrorist who attacked Old Dominion yesterday was released early, despite having met with ISIL members in Nigeria and attempting to support ISIL in plotting attacks against the United States,” Moore said.
He argued that naturalised US citizens with known terrorist ties should no longer be released and announced plans to introduce legislation that would denaturalise and deport anyone involved in terrorism on American soil.
“This is insane and it must end. That’s why I’m introducing a bill to denaturalise and deport any naturalised citizen who seeks to commit or supports terrorist attacks against the American people,” Moore added.
The DOJ record Moore cited details Jalloh’s recent six-month trip to Africa, during which he met with ISIL operatives in Nigeria and began online communications with a member who later introduced him to a confidential human source (CHS). Jalloh reportedly told the CHS that he constantly thought about conducting an attack and came close to doing so on one occasion.
On Thursday, Jalloh entered Old Dominion University and opened fire, killing one person and injuring two others before being subdued. The FBI confirmed that he shouted “Allahu Akbar” prior to the attack and noted that he had previously been under investigation for providing material support to terrorism.
FBI spokesperson Dominique Evans said, “Prior to carrying out this act of terrorism, he shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ and had been formally investigated by the FBI for material support for terrorism.”
