Trump Authorizes Firing Squad Execution for 2009 Fort Hood Attacker Nidal Hasan

President Donald Trump has authorized the execution by firing squad of Nidal Hasan, the former U.S. Army psychiatrist convicted of killing 13 people in the 2009 shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, the Pentagon announced Monday.

The execution would mark the first carried out by the U.S. military since 1961. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recommended the measure, and President Trump approved the death sentence by U.S. Army firing squad for Hasan, whom the Pentagon identified as a convicted terrorist, according to a statement from Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell.

“The Secretary of the Army will set the time and place of the execution. Judgement day for Hasan has finally come,” Parnell wrote.

A military jury sentenced Hasan to death in 2013 for the Al-Qaeda-inspired attack. During his trial, Hasan chose to represent himself, called no witnesses, offered no testimony, and did not contest the charges. Court-appointed defense counsel expressed concern at the time that he was actively seeking the death penalty.

Deadliest Attack on a Domestic Military Installation

Hasan, a U.S.-born Muslim of Palestinian descent, opened fire on November 5, 2009, at a medical processing center on the sprawling Fort Hood base, a major deployment hub for soldiers heading to Iraq and Afghanistan. Thirteen people were killed—12 soldiers and one civilian—and more than 30 others were wounded. Hasan was shot and partially paralyzed by a civilian police officer who responded to the scene.

Prosecutors presented evidence that Hasan opposed U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and had communicated online with Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical cleric and alleged Al-Qaeda operative later killed in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen.

While mass shootings are frequent in the United States, they remain rare on military installations. Notable incidents in recent years include a 2025 shooting at a Georgia base that wounded five soldiers; a 2019 attack at a Hawaii base where a sailor killed two people; the fatal shooting of three people by a Saudi military student at a Florida base the same year; a 2015 attack on two Tennessee military facilities by a Kuwaiti-born U.S. citizen that killed five service members; and the 2013 Washington Navy Yard shooting that left 12 dead.

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