Army cadets recall how fallen officer defended them in Old Dominion shooting

The Army ROTC cadets who fought back against a classroom gunman at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, say they owe their lives to the mentorship and training they received from Lt. Col. Brandon Shah, the senior instructor killed in the attack

Eight cadets spoke for the first time about the attack in a 17-minute video released by the Army last week, the first public comments the cadets have made since the shooting. The students described the suddenness of the attack in their Military Science classroom, the deadly fight with the shooter, and how Shah’s leadership and example carried the day.

“The only reason we were able to do what we did in the end was because of him,” said Samuel Reineberg, a cadet who tended to Shah’s wounds after the fight, falling back on first aid skills he’d learned from Shah during combat casualty care training.

The cadets described how a typical day in a classroom suddenly morphed into a scene of violence and valor. One cadet who charged the shooter was shot in the chest by a small-caliber pistol, but continued fighting as his classmates piled on behind me.

But the students say it was Shah who led the way.

“Col. Shah used the last of his strength to tackle that guy and gave us just enough time that we needed,” recalled Louis Ancheta, the cadet who was shot.

‘If he’s going, I gotta back him’

Cadet Wesley Meyers said he was presenting a research project when Mohamed Bailor Jalloh entered the room and opened fire. Jalloh was a former Virginia National Guard soldier who had become a follower of the late radical Islamic cleric Anwar al-Awlaki. He served 8 years in prison after pleading guilty in federal court to “attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq” in 2016.

Meyers said Jalloh yelled “Allahu Akbar” and began firing what Ancheta said was a .22 caliber Glock 44.

Shah lunged at the Jalloh, said Ancheta, who, unlike most ROTC cadets, had attended enlisted basic training as a soldier in the Army Reserve. Under his desk, Ancheta said he reached for his pocket knife.

“I open it. And I run up and, as I’m running up, Col. Shah lunges at that guy, and starts wrestling with him upright,” he said.

As he approached the pair, a bullet struck Ancheta in the chest. 

“It really didn’t feel like it hit me,” he said. “It felt like a graze. After that, I’m like, ‘I can keep on going.’”

Nearby, Jeremy Rawlinson also reacted.

“I saw a cadet in front of me. I saw his feet jump over a table and rush up. And so I said to myself, ‘well, if he’s going, I gotta back him,’” said Rawlinson.

‘These guys didn’t panic’

Only after the danger had passed, said Reineberg, did Shah collapse. The cadets used a belt for a tourniquet on Shah’s leg, Reineberg said, and Shah remained awake and talking even as medics took him away. The cadets did not know he had died until it was announced at a press conference hours later. Shah was married and had one son.

“I take solace in the fact knowing that he was conscious and awake for all of that,” Reineberg said. “So, he got to see all the training that he and the rest of [the ROTC] cadre had been giving us for the past years. He got to see us instantly do that in action. But he got to see right then and there he’s like, ‘Hey, these guys didn’t panic.’”

Ancheta, Meyers, Reineberg, and Rawlinson were awarded Meritorious Service Medals. Ancheta and Shah both received Purple Hearts.

“Lt. Col. Shah was almost like a second father to me. He saw the best in us,” said Osheo Bego, one of the cadets in Shah’s class. “One of the last things he told my mom when they met this summer was that he would take care of me. He followed through on that word.”

In the days after the shooting, students painted a white rock near Constant Hall on Old Dominion’s campus bearing Shah’s name. On it are the words “Be Bold, Be Quick, Be Gone,” Shah’s motto for the ROTC detachment. A native of nearby Chesapeake, Virginia, Shah enlisted in the Army in 2003 before graduating from Old Dominion in 2007 and commissioning as an AH64 Apache pilot. Shah flew 1,200 flying hours, including 600 in combat.

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