Norfolk's Commonwealth's Attorney Ramin Fatehi, a district attorney backed by political action committees associated with billionaire George Soros, faced swift criticism on Thursday after attributing the Old Dominion University mass shooting in part to pro-gun lawmakers and judges.
The shooting occurred on the ODU campus, leaving multiple victims. The shooter has been identified as a former National Guardsman and naturalized citizen from Sierra Leone who had previously been sentenced in 2017 for attempting to provide material support to ISIS, according to federal court records.
During a post-shooting press conference, Fatehi walked to the podium unprompted and delivered remarks about where blame should be directed, while acknowledging constraints on what he could say about the case specifics.
What the Left Is Saying
Progressive supporters of Fatehi and other advocates for gun control measures have argued that his comments reflect a broader systemic issue in the United States regarding access to firearms.
"These men work every day to make people safe," Fatehi said during the press conference, referring to law enforcement. "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."
Fatehi argued that regardless of the ideological motivation behind any attacker, the presence of firearms increases the danger. "No matter the ideology of an attacker, that attacker is more dangerous with a gun than without one," he said.
The Norfolk DA further contended that the frequency of mass shootings in the United States stems from a lack of political will to enact stricter gun regulations, pointing to opposition from lawmakers and the Supreme Court.
"Until there is the political will to break the spell of the cult of gun absolutism, you will see more incidents like this," Fatehi said. "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."
What the Right Is Saying
Conservative commentators and critics quickly condemned Fatehi's remarks, arguing they were inappropriate given the shooter's known ties to terrorist organizations.
"I really try not to cuss here, but Fatehi can f--- right off with this statement," posted Cam Edwards, editor of BearingArms, on the social platform X.
RedState writer Bonchie wrote, "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."
Amy Swearer, a senior legal fellow at Advancing American Freedom, stated on X: "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."
Critics noted the shooter had been convicted of terrorism-related charges and argued that Fatehi's focus on gun policy ignored the perpetrator's extremist ideology.
What the Numbers Show
According to a Fox News Digital review of campaign finance records, two Soros-funded political action committees — the Justice and Public Safety PAC and Democracy PAC — donated over $650,000 combined to Fatehi's campaign between 2021 and 2025.
The Capital Research Center, a conservative group that tracks nonprofit spending, reported that the Justice and Public Safety PAC spent $40 million between 2012 and 2022 supporting left-wing prosecutors. Democracy PAC, created by Soros in 2019, received nearly $30 million during the first three months of 2020.
The shooter in Thursday's incident was sentenced in 2017 for attempting to provide material support to ISIS and appears to have been released by the federal Bureau of Prisons in late 2024 during the Biden administration, according to court records cited in reports.
The Bottom Line
The controversy surrounding Fatehi's comments highlights the broader political debate over gun policy and accountability in the wake of mass shootings. The Norfolk DA's remarks drew attention both to his campaign's funding sources and to the complex interplay between criminal history, ideology, and firearms access in analyzing violence. Moving forward, advocates on both sides are likely to continue using such incidents to argue for their respective policy positions, while questions remain about the federal government's handling of individuals with terrorism-related convictions.
The shooter, who was killed by a campus police officer during the incident, had a criminal record that included a 2017 conviction for attempting to provide material support to a terrorist organization — a factor that critics say should have been central to discussions of the tragedy rather than broader debates about gun policy.