U.S. Army Major and psychiatrist Nidal Malik Hasan, who killed 13 people and injured at least 30 others in a mass shooting at Fort Hood near Killeen, Texas, on November 20, 2009, will face execution by firing squad, according to an order from President Donald Trump.
Hasan was convicted in a 2013 court-martial after being sentenced to death. During his trial, Hasan claimed the attack was intended to keep the U.S. out of Afghanistan and avoid the killing of his fellow Muslims.
On Monday, President Trump approved the U.S. Army’s recommendation for Hasan’s execution by firing squad, as stated by Sean Parnell, spokesperson for Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. “The Secretary of the Army will set the time and place of the execution,” Parnell wrote on social media.
The decision marks the first time in 65 years that the U.S. Army has carried out a federal death penalty, according to the Associated Press. Hasan reportedly yelled “Allahu Akbar” before opening fire with a laser-sighted handgun and intentionally targeting military members at Fort Hood. His attack ended when Fort Hood civilian police Sergeant Mark Todd fired at him, paralyzing him from the waist down.
Hasan would have avoided the death penalty if just one juror had voted against it in his court-martial, but all jurors unanimously recommended the death sentence. Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas praised the decision, stating: “Nidal Hasan is a radical Islamist terrorist who carried out an attack in Texas that killed and injured dozens of Americans. He deserves to be executed for his crimes.”
The Fort Hood shooting remains the deadliest terror attack on U.S. soil since 9/11 until the 2015 San Bernardino incident. Hasan is one of four men currently on military death row at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas.
