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The execution by firing squad of convicted Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan will be livestreamed, a Pentagon official said Thursday, after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said it would be carried out in “public.”
Hegseth said Hasan, who was sentenced to death for killing 13 people and wounding 32 others at Fort Hood in 2009, will be executed by soldiers with rifles at the Texas military base.
“No brainer, execution by firing squad. Army major betrays his country. Radical Islamist kills a bunch of Americans at Fort Hood,” Hegseth said in an interview with Real America’s Voice when asked about the decision.
“Of course, we’re going to do it at Fort Hood. Going to do it on a Thursday. We’re going to do it at 1 o’clock, which is when he did it, and it’s going to be soldiers with rifles executing the firing squad,” he said.
Hegseth said the U.S. military has not carried out a firing squad execution since World War II.
“It will be livestreamed. Details will follow,” a Pentagon official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
In a video posted on X by official Pentagon accounts earlier Thursday, Hegseth said Hasan is “going to get a firing squad of soldiers, as it should be, and we’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public.”
“People need to understand that ... there’s serious consequence for these types of things,” Hegseth told right-wing influencer Jack Posobiec while aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier.
Hegseth noted that it would be the military’s first firing squad execution since World War II, referring to the case of Eddie Slovik, who was executed for desertion in 1945.
“I kind of like the mentality we had in World War II, which was win, which was understand when the enemy attacks you, you need to stand your ground,” Hegseth said.
In a separate clip, Posobiec asked Hegseth whether Hasan had made any final request.
“Don’t care. We’ll see him on Dec. 3,” Hegseth said, referring to the date Hasan is scheduled to die.
The Pentagon announced Monday that President Donald Trump had approved Hegseth’s recommendation to execute Hasan by firing squad, leaving the secretary of the Army to determine the time and place.
The Army had not previously announced a date or location.
Hasan, a former U.S. Army psychiatrist, opened fire at Fort Hood on Nov. 5, 2009, killing 13 people and wounding 32 others.
He was convicted in 2013 of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted murder and sentenced to death.
He has since been held at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
The execution would be the first carried out by the U.S. military since 1961, when John Bennett was hanged for rape and attempted murder.
It would also be the military’s first execution by firing squad since World War II.
Twelve of those killed and 30 of those wounded in the Fort Hood attack were soldiers.
Hasan was shot and partially paralyzed by a civilian police officer who responded to the attack.
During his trial, Hasan chose to conduct his own defense but called no witnesses, gave no testimony and made no attempt to deny the charges.
Court-appointed defense attorneys expressed concern that he was seeking execution.
The court that convicted Hasan was told he opposed the U.S. military’s operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and had communicated online with Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born al-Qaida-linked cleric later killed in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen.
The Pentagon said earlier this week that Trump had approved Hasan’s execution for carrying out what it described as an al-Qaida-inspired attack.
According to rights group Amnesty International, at least 17 public executions are known to have been carried out in 2025, including six in Afghanistan and 11 in Iran.
The Death Penalty Information Center says 135 soldiers have been executed by the U.S. military since 1916.
While mass shootings are common in the United States, they are relatively rare at military facilities.
In 2025, a soldier opened fire at a U.S. military base in Georgia, wounding five fellow troops before he was tackled and apprehended.
In 2019, a U.S. sailor fatally shot two people and wounded a third at a base in Hawaii, while a Saudi military student killed three people at a military facility in Florida the same year.
In 2015, a Kuwaiti-born U.S. citizen attacked two military installations in Tennessee, killing four Marines and a sailor. The FBI concluded the attack was inspired by a “foreign terrorist group.”
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