Norfolk’s commonwealth attorney, Ramin Fatehi, stood by remarks blaming gun culture and lawmakers after the mass shooting at Old Dominion University, even as the suspected shooter’s prior conviction for supporting ISIS and other details emerged. The attack left the gunman dead and others wounded, sparked a nationwide debate over who and what to blame, and brought scrutiny to the prosecutor’s political backers and campaign donations. Conservatives responded angrily on social platforms, arguing the focus should be on the suspect’s terrorism ties and failures in the justice system rather than guns alone.
At a tense post-shooting news conference, Fatehi refused to back down when pressed about his remarks. “I absolutely stand by what I said. It is the truth, no matter how much the gun lobby wants to deny it,” Fatehi said when asked if he stood by his comments despite Thursday’s mass shooter in Virginia having a public record of supporting Islamic terrorism. His words pointed a finger at lawmakers, judges, and broader gun culture instead of the attacker’s violent record.
The suspected shooter was a former National Guardsman and a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Sierra Leone with a prior federal sentence in 2017 for attempting to provide material support to ISIS. Reports indicate he appears to have been released by the federal Bureau of Prisons in late 2024 during the Biden administration, a fact that many conservatives seized on as central to understanding how a known extremist returned to the public sphere. That criminal history complicates any narrative that treats the event solely as a debate over firearms.
Fatehi has also drawn attention because of his campaign funding. His top donors include groups subsidized by George Soros, and reporting shows those entities gave significant sums over recent years. The involvement of outside funding in local prosecutor races has been a flashpoint in Republican criticism of progressive prosecutor influence and priorities.
“No matter the ideology of an attacker, that attacker is more dangerous with a gun than without one,” Fatehi, whose top two donors include the Soros-subsidized Justice and Public Safety PAC and Democracy PAC, said. That line reinforced his central claim: legislation and court rulings that protect gun rights, he argued, make these attacks deadlier and more likely to succeed. Critics counter that a shooter with a known terrorism conviction being free to act is the more direct failure.
“I’m constrained in what I can say about the facts of the case, but I can speak a little more freely about the bigger questions,” Fatehi said after walking up to the podium. He went on to characterize the violence as a symptom of national priorities and values, not just a local tragedy. His extended comments linked a number of societal choices and legal decisions to the likelihood of future attacks.
“These men work every day to make people safe,” he continued, referring to law enforcement officials. “People are as safe on the ODU campus as anywhere, arguably safer than in other parts of Norfolk. But this is not an ODU problem. This is a national sickness. We live in a country where people care more about guns than they care about 6-year-old children. They care more about guns than they care about synagogue worshipers. And they care more about guns than they do about college students.”
His call for political action also included a pointed appeal to voters and officials. “Until there is the political will to break the spell of the cult of gun absolutism, you will see more incidents like this. So, if you are looking for somebody to blame, don’t look at anybody up here, look at our lawmakers who don’t have the courage to implement sensible gun control measures, look to a Supreme Court that enables them, and do something about it,” Fatehi continued. That language intensified backlash from conservatives who viewed it as deflecting from the suspect’s extremism.
Social media response was immediate and harsh from conservative commentators and legal analysts. “I really try not to cuss here, but Fatehi can f— right off with this statement,” BearingArms editor Cam Edwards posted on X. “Given this lunatic is the DA, there’s like a 90% chance he’s going to charge the hero who stabbed the Islamist to death to stop the attack,” RedState writer Bonchie wrote on X.
“You see, ISIS terrorists wouldn’t be terrorists if it weren’t for Republican gun culture or something,” Bonchie said in another X post. “Mind-numbing.” “I generally stop short of telling bad faith morons to go to hell because eternal damnation isn’t a trifling matter, but this level of intentional and malicious imbecility is testing my resolve,” Amy Swearer, a senior legal fellow at Advancing American Freedom, wrote on X. Those reactions illustrate how quickly local tragedy becomes fodder for national political fights.
Authorities confirmed the suspected shooter at ODU was Mohamed Jalloh, and the incident was first reported shortly before 10:49 a.m. Police said the gunman was pronounced dead when officers arrived, and one victim later died while two others were injured. “We have confirmed reports that prior to him conducting this act of terrorism, he shouted all our stated Allahu Akbar,” Special Agent in Charge Dominique Evans said in a Thursday evening news conference, and federal officials indicated the incident was being investigated as an act of terrorism.
Reports from the scene indicated Jalloh was targeting ROTC members before a cadet intervened and stabbed the attacker, ending the rampage. That heroic intervention and the suspect’s documented extremist past are central to conservative arguments that focus should be on enforcement, detention policies, and the failures that let a dangerous man back into society. As investigations continue, Republican voices are calling for clearer accountability from the justice system and for policies that prioritize public safety over partisan narratives.
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