Trump approves firing squad execution for Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan

President Donald Trump has approved the execution by firing squad of former Army Maj. Nidal Hasan for the 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, that killed 13 people and wounded 32 others, according to reports by AP and the Washington Times.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recommended the method, and Trump approved it, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell announced on X. “The Secretary of the Army will set the time and place of the execution. Judgement day for Hasan has finally come,” Parnell wrote.

It will mark the first execution carried out by the US military since 1961. Hasan, a US-born Muslim of Palestinian descent who self-identified as an Islamic jihadist, opened fire at Fort Hood’s Soldier Readiness Center on November 5, 2009, before being shot and partially paralyzed by a responding officer. A military jury sentenced him to death in 2013, and his final legal appeal was rejected in April 2025.

Hasan is held at the US Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, one of four inmates on the military’s death row. The approval comes under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which requires presidential sign-off for a service member’s execution.