'i Wouldn't Be Here': Cadets Pay Tribute To Officer Who Died Stopping Old Dominion Shooter

The ROTC cadets getting fresh to time off their people astatine Old Dominion University past period had ne'er seen nan alien who entered nan room, but thought possibly he was personification early for nan adjacent class.

But he seemed tense erstwhile he asked whether it was an ROTC class.

“I wasn’t reasoning astir what that mobility really meant,” Louis Ancheta said.

Then nan man reached into his waist, pulled retired a Glock handgun, and shouted thing — immoderate heard it arsenic Allahu Akbar — and began firing, nan cadets said successful a video shared online Thursday by nan Army ROTC.

“My first thought was, ‘is this a drill?’ Because we conscionable talked astir unit protection,” different cadet, Oshea Bego, said successful a video recounting nan events of March 12, erstwhile a gunman opened occurrence connected nan people astatine nan Virginia university.

“And then, like, erstwhile it really started to happen, I was like, ‘Oh, this is real,’” cadet Samora Robinson said. “Everybody had dropped down to nan ground.”

Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, who had antecedently been convicted of supporting ISIS, fatally changeable nan instructor, Army Lt. Col. Brandon A. Shah and wounded 2 others astatine nan Norfolk university, officials said. Authorities said nan onslaught was an enactment of terrorism.

A makeshift memorial connected nan Old Dominion University field past month.Kendall Warner / The Virginian-Pilot/Tribune News Service via Getty Images file

Jalloh, 36, was besides killed. Cadets successful nan video described stabbing him pinch their pocketknives during a hopeless struggle for nan gun.

Shah lunged astatine Jalloh and started wrestling pinch him arsenic some men were upright and standing, Ancheta said.

Ancheta said he opened his pocketknife arsenic Jalloh fired 2 shots, and 1 of nan stray shots struck him, leaving a graze wound.

“Col. Shah yet turns him around. So past aft that, I’m like, I’m ready, truthful I conscionable spell successful there,” Ancheta said. “Just commencement stabbing him. As I’m stabbing him, different cadets jump in.”

A mates of group stabbed astatine Jalloh during nan struggle, and others punched astatine him earlier everyone fell to nan ground, cadets said successful nan video.

When they sewage nan handgun distant from Jalloh, nan gun’s mag was quiet and 1 information was near successful nan chamber, cadet Wesley Myers said.

Shah had been changeable successful nan precocious thigh. The students said they utilized a loop arsenic a tourniquet.

They called constabulary but didn’t cognize if this was nan only gunman, nan students said. One cadet met constabulary and led them to nan segment of nan shooting and nan wounded.

They later learned that Shah had died.

Cadet Jah-Ire Urtarte said that Shah was almost for illustration a 2nd father. “He saw nan champion successful us,” he said.

The students said that Shah had a saying: “Be bold, beryllium quick, beryllium gone.”

“If he didn’t lunge astatine him, you know, I wouldn’t beryllium present correct now,” Urtarte said.