Pentagon Says Fort Hood Shooter’s Firing Squad Will Be Livestreamed

The Pentagon said Thursday that the firing-squad execution of Nidal Malik Hasan will be livestreamed, after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Dec. 3 execution at Fort Hood would be public.

Hegseth, speaking Wednesday to Real America’s Voice from the USS Abraham Lincoln, said people would be able to watch. “We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public,” he said. In a separate interview he added that the point was that “people need to understand that there’s serious consequences for these types of things.” Asked whether Hasan had made any final requests or reached out to the administration, he said, “Don’t care. We’ll see him on Dec. 3.” Pentagon officials clarified Thursday that the execution will be livestreamed and that more details would follow. A Pentagon official told Reuters, “The Secretary is correct. It will be livestreamed. Details will follow.” The White House referred questions to the Pentagon.

President Trump approved the method Monday on Hegseth’s recommendation. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell announced the approval and said the secretary of the Army will set the time and place. The Army has set Dec. 3 at Fort Hood, the post where the shooting happened. Hegseth said the military has not executed a service member by firing squad since World War II. The last military execution was April 13, 1961, when Army Pvt. John Bennett was hanged at Fort Leavenworth.

Hasan was an Army psychiatrist, a major, weeks from a deployment to Afghanistan when he opened fire on Nov. 5, 2009, inside the Soldier Readiness Processing Center. Soldiers were in line for immunizations and medical clearance. He shouted “Allahu akbar” and fired a laser-sighted handgun. He killed 13 people — 12 unarmed active-duty soldiers and one retired serviceman — and wounded 32 others. Civilian police shot him during the arrest. He was left partially paralyzed and has been confined to a wheelchair.

Trial evidence showed weeks of preparation. He videotaped a sales clerk showing him how to change the magazine on the pistol he bought, then went to a range outside Austin and asked an instructor how to reload with speed. Soldiers later testified that the reloading made the shooting hard to stop. Investigators recovered 146 shell casings inside the building and dozens more outside, where he shot at soldiers running toward the parking lot. Hasan said the attack was meant to stop soldiers from going to Afghanistan and killing Muslims. A military judge barred that argument as a defense. Acting as his own counsel, he told jurors the evidence would show he was the shooter and described himself as a soldier who had “switched sides.”

A panel of 13 officers convicted him in July 2013 of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted murder and unanimously recommended death. The sentence sat on the books for more than a decade. Military-law specialists said Thursday that Hasan can still file a habeas petition in civilian court and resist the execution, which could push the date past this administration. Eugene R. Fidell, a visiting lecturer at Yale who specializes in military law, said a challenge “frankly might outlast the current administration.”

The Pentagon has not said where the livestream will be carried or who will be in the room. What it has said is the date, the post, the method, and that the public will be able to watch.