Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan's firing-squad execution set for Dec. 3

The U.S. Army has scheduled the execution of Nidal Hasan, convicted in the 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, for Dec. 3, 2026, by firing squad at Fort Hood. Acting Secretary of the Army Adam Telle announced the date and place in a social media post on Tuesday, the Associated Press and UPI reported. UPI said the execution is set for 1 p.m. CST; The Hill reported a memo obtained by its partner network NewsNation listing 1 p.m. CDT. [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 ]

Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said late Monday that President Donald Trump approved the firing-squad method on the recommendation of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. “Judgement day for Hasan has finally come,” Parnell wrote, according to CBS News. The New York Post called Hegseth secretary of war; The Hill said Parnell has been floated as the next Army secretary. [ 1 , 4 , 5 , 6 ]

The documents say Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, walked into a medical building at Fort Hood where soldiers were preparing to deploy and opened fire with a laser-sighted handgun after shouting “Allahu akbar,” Arabic for “God is great.” Thirteen people were killed and 32 injured, according to UPI, CBS News and the New York Post; the Associated Press said more than 30 were injured. CBS News reported he fired 146 times and was paralyzed from the chest down when police returned fire. UPI said the attack was at the post's Soldier Readiness Processing Center on Nov. 5, 2009; the New York Post said the troops were on line to be immunized. [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 ]

UPI reported Hasan was convicted of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder and sentenced to death in August 2013 by a general court-martial panel. The documents say he never denied being the shooter. The Associated Press reported he said the attack was meant to stop soldiers going to Afghanistan from killing fellow Muslims and called himself a soldier who had “switched sides.” UPI reported he said the shooting was in defense of Taliban leadership; the New York Post said he told a military judge he was defending “the leadership of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, the Taliban.” [ 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 ]

The Hill reported Hasan represented himself at the 2013 trial, saying in his opening statement that “the evidence will clearly show that I am the shooter,” and that he said he carried out the shooting in response to the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Hill said the attack came one month before he was scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan. [ 6 ]

The documents state the U.S. military has not carried out an execution since 1961, when the Army hanged Pvt. John A. Bennett, and that the last military firing-squad execution was that of Pvt. Eddie Slovik during World War II. The Associated Press and The Seattle Times reported that Trump's approval set off procedural steps toward carrying out the execution but that Hasan could delay it, potentially for years, with a habeas corpus appeal in civilian federal court, citing a May article in the magazine Army Lawyer. UPI reported Sen. Ted Cruz said Hasan “deserves to be executed for his crimes,” and that three other prisoners are on military death row at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where CBS News said Hasan has been held since his conviction. [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ]