Trump approves firing-squad execution for Fort Hood gunman Nidal Hasan

US President Donald Trump has approved a firing-squad execution for Nidal Hasan, the former Army psychiatrist responsible for killing 13 people and wounding more than two dozen others at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009, the Pentagon announced.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said on social platform X that Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth recommended the method and Trump approved it, with the Secretary of the Army to determine the time and place. This will be the first execution carried out by the US military since 1961.

The case

A military jury sentenced Hasan to death in 2013 for the Al-Qaeda-inspired attack. He represented himself at trial, calling no witnesses, offering no testimony, and making no attempt to contest the charges — behaviour that led his court-appointed attorneys to voice concern he was effectively seeking his own execution.

Hasan, a US-born Muslim of Palestinian descent, opened fire on November 5, 2009, at a medical facility on the Fort Hood base, which served as a deployment hub for troops heading to Iraq and Afghanistan. Twelve of those killed and 30 of the wounded were soldiers. A civilian police officer shot and partially paralysed Hasan during the attack.

Trial testimony indicated Hasan opposed US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and had communicated online with radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, an American citizen later killed in a US drone strike in Yemen.

Rare at military sites

While mass shootings occur frequently in the United States, they remain uncommon at military installations. The report notes several other incidents in recent years, including a 2025 shooting at a Georgia base, 2019 attacks in Hawaii and Florida, a 2015 assault in Tennessee, and the 2013 Washington Navy Yard shooting.