Who is Nidal Malik Hasan? Trump approves execution of 2009 Fort Hood shooting convict; all you need to know

US President Donald Trump has approved the execution of 2009 Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan by a U.S. Army firing squad, Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell said. Hasan, a former US Army psychiatrist, was charged with the murders of 13 people. Dozens were left injured in the shooting.

“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. He killed 13 people and wounded 32 others while shouting “Allahu Akbar” during the attack," Parnell said in a post on X [sic].




The Fort Hood shooting occurred on November 5, 2009, and Hasan was sentenced to death for the rampage by a military court in 2013, multiple outlets including The Guardian reported. According to reports, he said he acted to protect Islamic insurgents abroad from American aggression. Hasan never denied being the gunman.

Citing his opening statements at the court hearing, The Guardian, in 2013, reported that Hasan acknowledged to the jury that he pulled the trigger in a waiting room where troops were getting their final medical checkups done before leaving for Iraq and Afghanistan.

Here’s what we know about Nidal Malik Hasan and the Fort Hood shooting

Hasan, who was 39 when he carried out the shooting, was born and raised in Virginia. His parents shifted to the United States from a Palestinian town near Jerusalem, BBC reported, citing his cousin. He joined the US Army after completing his high school education. He was put through medical school.

In 2010, a local imam said that he attended daily prayers at a mosque when he worked at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC, BBC reported, citing the Washington Post.

The fatal gunfire on the afternoon of November 5, 2009, at Fort Hood, Texas, left 12 US soldiers and one civilian dead, as reported by Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty. Fort Hood is a sprawling 500-square-kilometer military base located about 100 kilometers south of Waco, Texas.

According to the outlet, the shooting occurred at the base's Soldier Readiness Center. It is a facility for the medical screening of soldiers who are about to be deployed to combat zones overseas, such as Iraq and Afghanistan, or are returning from duties abroad.


Also Read: Donald Trump approves execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, former US Army psychiatrist who killed 13 in 2009 Fort Hood shooting


Hasan, a psychiatrist at Fort Hood, was unconscious in a hospital on November 6 after being shot four times. Amid the chaos, authorities initially believed that they had killed Hasan, only to discover later that he had survived.

The former US Army major started working at Fort Hood in July, 2009. Prior to that, he had worked at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington for six years while pursuing a career in psychiatry.

He began his stint as an intern. In 2008, he was working as a fellow in disaster and preventive psychiatry. He earned his medical degree from the military's Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland, in 2001.