Who is Nidal Hasan? Donald Trump orders firing squad for gunman who killed 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas

US President Donald Trump approved the execution by firing squad of former US Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan, who was convicted of killing 13 people and wounding more than 30 others during the 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood, Texas.

The decision was approved at the recommendation of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a post on X. The Secretary of the Army will determine the time and place of the execution.

“Judgment day for Hasan has finally come,” Parnell wrote.


If carried out, Hasan’s execution would be the first military execution by the United States since 1961. The US military has not carried out a death penalty in decades.

Trump’s approval triggers further procedural steps before the execution can take place. Hasan could potentially delay the execution through a habeas corpus appeal in the civilian federal court system.

The decision comes days after a failed attempt to execute Tennessee death-row inmate Christa Pike by lethal injection. The incident prompted Tennessee’s governor to halt further executions in the state this year and order an independent review.

Firing squad is one of several methods of capital punishment recently added by the Trump administration for federal crimes, alongside electrocution and gas asphyxiation.

Who Is Nidal Hasan?

Nidal Malik Hasan is a former US Army psychiatrist who carried out the November 5, 2009, mass shooting at Fort Hood, Texas.

Hasan entered a medical building where soldiers were undergoing medical checkups and opened fire with a laser-sighted handgun. He shouted “Allahu Akbar,” Arabic for “God is great,” during the attack.

The shooting killed 13 people, including 12 active-duty soldiers and one civilian. More than 30 others were wounded. Civilian police officers shot Hasan during the incident, leaving him partially paralysed and confined to a wheelchair.

Hasan was scheduled to be deployed to Afghanistan weeks after the shooting. Evidence presented during his trial showed that he opposed US military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. He had also maintained online communications with Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born radical cleric connected to Al-Qaeda who was later killed in a US drone strike in Yemen.

Hasan later described himself as a soldier who had “switched sides” and said the shooting was intended to stop US soldiers from going to Afghanistan and killing fellow Muslims. Prosecutors argued that the attack was inspired by Al-Qaeda.

During his court-martial, Hasan represented himself, did not call witnesses, declined to testify and made almost no effort to dispute the charges. His court-appointed defence lawyers had previously expressed concern that he was actively seeking a death sentence.

In August 2013, a military jury convicted Hasan of 45 counts of premeditated murder and attempted premeditated murder and sentenced him to death.

Four men, including Hasan, are currently on the military's death row at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. President George W. Bush approved the execution of Army Spc. Ronald Gray in 2008, but a judge put the execution on hold, and Gray remains at Leavenworth.

The last person executed under the US military justice system was Pvt. John Bennett, who was hanged in 1961 for raping an 11-year-old girl. The apparent last US military execution by firing squad was carried out by “musketry” in November 1945.

(With inputs from agencies)