Trump Approves Firing Squad Execution of Former US Army Major Nidal Hasan
“He killed 13 people and wounded 32 others while shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ during the attack,” he added.
US President Donald Trump has approved the execution by firing squad of former US Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan, who was sentenced to death for killing 13 people and wounding 32 others in the 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood, Texas.
Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell announced the decision, saying Secretary of War Pete Hegseth had recommended the method of execution and President Trump had approved it.
“Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has recommended — and President Donald J. Trump has approved — death by U.S. Army firing squad for convicted terrorist Nidal Malik Hasan, the jihadist who opened fire on unarmed American soldiers at Fort Hood in 2009,” Parnell said in a social media post.
“He killed 13 people and wounded 32 others while shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ during the attack,” he added.
According to Parnell, the Secretary of the Army will determine the time and location of the execution.
“Judgement day for Hasan has finally come,” the Pentagon spokesman said.
Hegseth also shared Parnell’s announcement on X, adding a one-word response: “Justice.”
The 2009 Fort Hood Shooting
Major Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist at the time, entered a medical readiness building at Fort Hood on November 5, 2009, carrying two firearms and multiple magazines of ammunition.
He opened fire on soldiers who were waiting for medical examinations and vaccinations ahead of deployments, killing 13 people and wounding 32 others.
Hasan was shot during the response to the attack and was left paralysed from the waist down.
During his military trial, the former Army major acknowledged carrying out the shooting and told jurors that he had “switched sides” in what he described as America’s war with Islam.
Hasan said he wanted to prevent American soldiers from being deployed to kill fellow Muslims. Government prosecutors also said he did not want to proceed with his own impending deployment to Afghanistan.
The US Department of Defense at the time classified the Fort Hood shooting as an act of workplace violence rather than terrorism.
Major Hasan Sentenced to Death in 2013
A US military court convicted Major Hasan in 2013 of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder and sentenced him to death.
He is one of four inmates on death row in the US Army’s military justice system.
The planned execution would also be historically significant for the US military. The last US military execution was carried out in 1961, when Army Private John A. Bennett was hanged at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
The use of a firing squad comes as the Trump administration moves to expand and accelerate the use of capital punishment.
The US Justice Department has moved to permit firing squads as an execution method while also restoring the use of single-drug lethal injections involving pentobarbital.
During Trump’s first administration, the federal government carried out 13 executions. The Biden administration later imposed a moratorium on federal executions and commuted the death sentences of 37 federal prisoners to life imprisonment.
Five US states, Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Utah — currently permit execution by firing squad.
The Secretary of the Army will now set the time and place for the execution of former US Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan.
