Trump approves firing squad execution of US Army base shooter

US President Donald Trump addresses the 81st United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters in New York on September 22, 2026. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS / AFP)

US President Donald Trump has approved the execution by firing squad of former US Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan, who was convicted over the 2009 Fort Hood shooting that killed 13 people and wounded 32 others.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell announced the decision in a post on X on Monday, saying Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth had recommended the execution and Trump had approved it.

“Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has recommended — and President Donald J. Trump has approved — death by U.S. Army firing squad for convicted terrorist Nidal Malik Hasan.

“The Secretary of the Army will set the time and place of the execution,” Parnell said.

Hasan was convicted by a military jury in 2013 of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder over the November 5, 2009, attack at Fort Hood, Texas.

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He opened fire at a military facility where soldiers were undergoing processing for deployment, killing 13 people and injuring 32 others.

Hasan, an Army psychiatrist at the time, was sentenced to death following the trial.

The approval sets in motion the process for his execution, although no date has been announced. The Army Secretary will determine when and where it will take place.

If carried out, Hasan’s execution would be the first by the US military since 1961.

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