Trump approves firing squad execution for Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan, Pentagon says

President Donald Trump approved a plan to execute convicted Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan by a US Army firing squad, the Pentagon announced. Hasan killed 13 people and wounded over 30 in the 2009 attack. The execution would be the US military's first since 1961.

President Donald Trump approved a plan to execute convicted Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan by a US Army firing squad, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell announced Monday. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recommended the execution method, and Trump approved it. Hasan, a former Army major and psychiatrist, killed 13 people and wounded more than 30 in the November 5, 2009 shooting at the Texas military base. "The Secretary of the Army will set the time and place of the execution," Parnell wrote, adding, "Judgment day for Hasan has finally come." Hegseth shared the announcement with the comment, "Justice." No execution date was specified. Hasan was convicted in a 2013 court-martial and sentenced to death. During his trial, he acknowledged being the shooter and claimed he acted to protect Islamic insurgents. He represented himself and clashed with standby attorneys, who expressed concern he was deliberately seeking a death sentence. The Supreme Court declined to review his appeal in 2025. If carried out, Hasan's execution would be the US military's first since 1961, when a soldier was hanged for raping and attempting to murder an 11-year-old girl. Firing squads remain uncommon in the US; South Carolina carried out three such executions in 2025.