Trump Orders Execution of Gunman in 2009 Attack at Fort Hood

AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTThe Pentagon said that Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who carried out the deadliest mass shooting at an American military base, would be executed by firing squad.Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan in 2010. During his court-martial, he was convicted after admitting to killing 13 people and wounding dozens of others at Fort Hood in Texas.Credit...Bell County Sheriff's OfficeOct. 5, 2026, 9:55 p.m. ETPresident Trump has approved the execution of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the U.S. Army officer who killed 13 people and wounded 32 others in the 2009 shooting at Fort Hood in Texas, the deadliest mass shooting at an American military base.Sean Parnell, a Pentagon spokesman, said on Monday that Major Hasan would be executed by firing squad, adding that the secretary of the Army would set the time and place of the execution.If the order is carried out, Major Hasan, 56, will be the first person to be executed through the military justice system since 1961, and could be the first person to be put to death by the federal government since the execution of 13 inmates in the waning days of Mr. Trump’s first term. President George W. Bush had authorized a military execution in 2008, but it was later halted and has not been carried out. President Joseph R. Biden Jr. commuted the sentences of nearly all prisoners on the civilian federal death row in late 2024.On Nov. 5, 2009, Major Hasan, an Army psychiatrist stationed at Fort Hood, took a personal handgun onto the base grounds and opened fire in a lethal rampage that sent shock waves through the U.S. military. Major Hasan said that he carried out the attack, which occurred at the height of the post-9/11 fight against terrorism, to wage jihad for what he called the illegal and immoral wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.Major Hasan, who was shot and paralyzed from the waist down during the attack, admitted to the killings during his court-martial and was convicted in 2013 of 45 counts of premeditated murder and attempted premeditated murder. He is being held at the military death row prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kan. He expressed no remorse for his actions, and told a military mental health panel that he wished he had died in the attack so that he could have become a martyr. He added that if he was eventually executed, “I would still be a martyr.”Born in Arlington, Va., to Muslim Palestinian parents, Major Hasan attended Virginia Tech and began his military medical school training in 1997. His views of Islam turned extreme in the years before the attack. In his statement, Mr. Parnell, the Pentagon spokesman, highlighted Major Hasan’s jihadist motivations and inaccurately described him as a “convicted terrorist.” In a deliberate move by the military, Major Hasan was not prosecuted on terrorism-related charges.The execution of Major Hasan could still be derailed. When Mr. Bush ordered the execution of Pvt. Ronald A. Gray, who was convicted of a series of rapes and murders during the 1980s, a judge stayed the order, saying that Private Gray should have more time to pursue a federal appeal. As of 2026, Private Gray remains on the military death row.Pfc. John A. Bennett was the last man executed by the military. He was hanged on April 13, 1961, after being convicted of the rape and attempted murder of an 11-year-old girl while he was stationed in Austria.Chris Cameron is a Times reporter covering Washington, focusing on breaking news and the Trump administration.Related ContentAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT