NORFOLK, Va. — The man accused of supplying the gun used in the Old Dominion University shooting skated on several potential gun charges in 2021 that could have landed him in prison for decades.

Kenya M. Chapman, 32, wasn’t charged in three illegal 2021 gun purchases, though one of those guns was used to kill a Newport News 17-year-old who was listening to music on his headphones when he was fired upon.

That September 2021 shooting also critically wounded a 20-year-old man who needed a foot of his intestine removed and later testified in court with a leaking pancreas. That victim was carrying a firearm at the time — also initially purchased by Chapman.

Moreover, the Daily Press has recently learned of another shooting — only nine days before the homicide — believed to have involved one of those guns.

An affidavit filed after the ODU shooting says Chapman admitted to the illegal gun purchases in 2021 and wrote “an apology letter” a year later to a special agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Neither the ATF nor the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia — which oversees federal prosecutions here — would explain last week why Chapman was not charged at the time.

The Newport News Police, which joined the ATF in interviewing Chapman in October of that year, also would not explain the lack of charges.

Sold gun to ODU shooter

Five years on, Chapman now stands accused of selling a Glock .22-caliber handgun to Mohamed Jalloh on March 11 — the night before the ODU shooting.

According to the ATF affidavit, Chapman said he stole the gun last year from the glove box of an unlocked car in Newport News, then sold it to Jalloh for $100.

The next morning, Jalloh walked into a ROTC training session at ODU and fired multiple rounds at Army Lt. Col. Brandon Shah, who was leading the class. Jalloh also shot and wounded two other students.

Several students tackled Jalloh, with one of them pulling a knife and stabbing him to death, according to a source familiar with the investigation.

The same day, investigators were able to link prior phone calls and text messages between Jalloh and Chapman, paying a visit to Chapman’s Smithfield apartment that evening.

Chapman quickly admitted selling Jalloh the handgun, even as he told agents he had “no idea” it would be used to shoot people at ODU.

Chapman is now charged over his actions from 2021. He’s accused of six gun counts stemming from his gun buys that year — facing up to 45 years in prison for those.

Only one pending charge, carrying a punishment of up to five years, is directly tied to the ODU shooting.

2021 purchases

According to an ATF affidavit filed on March 13, Chapman purchased three 9 mm handguns at Peninsula gun shops in the spring and summer of 2021.

First, he bought an HS-XD9 from Treasure Chest Pawn & Gun, on Mercury Boulevard in Hampton, on April 22, 2021.

Then he bought a Taurus G2C, from Bass Pro Shops in Hampton, on June 6, 2021. And he bought a Glock 17 from Winfree Firearms in York County on Aug. 16 of that year.

The first firearm was recovered by the Newport News Police in a drunk-in-public case in June of 2021.

Police then recovered two handguns from a Newport News homicide scene on Sept. 6, 2021 — one that an 18-year-old man had used in the shooting and the other that had been on the waist of a surviving victim.

The 2021 homicide

That case began about 6 p.m. that evening. Three acquaintances were in an apartment on Wickham Avenue, in Southeast Newport News, with some eating and smoking marijuana.

One of them, Diontae Jarnique Flythe, 18, went to a neighboring apartment, took the Taurus handgun from a couch, and stuck it in his pocket.

But when he went back to the first apartment, he said later, he overheard Malicah Antonio Forbes, 20, “talking on the phone about selling a Taurus firearm,” and heard 17-year-old Ma’alik Edwards saying Flythe “wanted to leave.”

Flythe would later tell detectives he “got a weird feeling” that Forbes and Edwards were planning to rob him of the handgun.

According to court testimony, Flythe came out of a bathroom pointing the gun at Forbes, who was sitting on the couch holding a toddler on his knee. Forbes said he pushed the girl off him just as Flythe began shooting.

Though Flythe’s gun didn’t fire at first, he chambered a round and got off several shots as Forbes fled out of the apartment. Look

Then Flythe turned and fired multiple rounds at Edwards, who was in the kitchen listening to music on his headphones. He was hit twice and fell to the floor. Flythe then chased Forbes outside, firing two more rounds.

Nine rounds were fired in all. Edwards was found dead on the kitchen floor, while Forbes was critically wounded outside.

A couple days later, Edwards’ then-pregnant girlfriend, 16, told a Daily Press reporter that the 17-year-old had been looking forward to having a baby daughter.

“That’s all he talked about,” she said. “He was funny, sweet, goofy, and he liked to eat — he liked to eat anything, to be honest.”

Flythe was charged with first-degree murder and related charges. He later pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and landed five years to serve.

Tracing the guns

Police investigators gathered both handguns from the crime scene that evening. The ATF traced the firearms to the purchases Chapman had made in the prior months.

About six weeks after the shooting, ATF Special Agent Brian J. Gleason and a Newport News police detective brought Chapman into police headquarters for a “non-custodial interview.”

“Chapman … admitted to straw purchasing all three firearms,” Gleason’s 2026 affidavit said. “He reported that he did so for money.”

Under a “straw purchase,” someone with a clean criminal history buys a firearm for someone who’s not allowed under law to possess it. That process typically involves lying on an ATF background check form.

“Are you the actual transferee/buyer of all of the firearm(s) listed on this form?” the checklist asks. “Warning: You are not the actual transferee/buyer if you are acquiring any of the firearm(s) on behalf of another person.”

If someone says no, the firearm purchase cannot move forward.

Chapman checked yes on that box. In the October 2021 interview, Chapman acknowledged his signature on the three forms.

Lying on a gun background check form is a federal felony — punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Defendants can also be hit with another charge, punishable by up to five years, for lying that “causes a federally licensed dealer to maintain false records.”

That means Chapman’s three gun purchases in 2021 could carry a combined potential punishment of up to 45 years behind bars if convicted.

In November 2022, the ATF warned Chapman not to do it again. “ATF issued Chapman a straw purchaser warning letter and Chapman wrote a letter of apology,” according to Gleason’s affidavit following the ODU shooting.

On top of the September 2021 homicide, records in Newport News Circuit Court indicate the Glock that Forbes was carrying was also used to shoot a man on Wickham Avenue just nine days before the homicide. The victim in that case survived.

No charges filed

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia — which prosecutes local cases brought by ATF — declined this week to explain why Chapman was not charged with any straw purchasing crimes in 2021.

Likewise, ATF Special Agent Whitney Cruse-King, a spokeswoman for the agency’s Washington Field Division — which includes Hampton Roads — declined to discuss how the decision not to prosecute Chapman came about.

In a post on X the day after the ODU shooting, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi blamed the Biden administration for the lack of a prosecution.

”Soft-on-crime policies cost lives,” she wrote. “The man who allegedly sold the illegal gun used in the Old Dominion University shooting had a history of selling illegal guns that were later used in crimes — but Biden’s DOJ wouldn’t prosecute him.”

The Justice Department stood by that assertion Friday.

According to a source familiar with the federal investigation, an assistant U.S. Attorney based in Newport News wrote a “declination memo” in the case on Nov. 18, 2022 saying “the investigation” against Chapman was no longer being pursued.

The Justice Department would not provide the Daily Press with a copy of that memo last week. But the source said the document cites the ATF’s 2022 warning letter to Chapman as well as his apology letter in response.

Did Chapman get a deal?

The source said there’s nothing in the document to indicate that Chapman was given a break from prosecution in return for his cooperation on other cases.

But two local attorneys not involved in this case say that’s always a possibility for what occurred.

“Sometimes people don’t get charged because they are providing information about other cases to law enforcement,” said James Ellenson, a longtime attorney who practices in federal court. “It’s often euphemistically called ‘community service.'”

Ellenson noted that in late 2021, there were still “a lot of logistical challenges” in the court system due to the pandemic, which could have led to fewer cases being taken up.

Other local investigators not involved in this case say law enforcement and prosecutors’ priorities can shift from year to year.

Anthony Gantous, the court-appointed lawyer representing Chapman on the seven pending federal charges, declined to comment on the now-resurrected 2021 allegations.

Aside from federal charges, local police in Virginia can also bring felony charges against those who sell guns to people who are precluded under state law from having them.

But Newport News Police Chief Steve Drew declined last week to talk about what happened with Chapman’s gun case five years ago.

“You have a valid question, but it would be wrong of me to comment on that situation,” given that the FBI and ATF are still investigating the ODU shooting, Drew said. “I don’t want to say anything that could hurt what they’re doing over there.”

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