‘One of the Worst Killers’: Trump Backs Firing-Squad Execution of Fort Hood Shooter

US President Donald Trump has backed the planned firing-squad execution of Nidal Hasan, the former Army major convicted of killing 13 people at Fort Hood in 2009, while leaving decisions on public access to the authorities.

Speaking to reporters outside the White House on Friday, Trump was asked whether the execution should be livestreamed and whether footage could be used as propaganda to radicalise others.

“Well, they’ll make a determination about that,” he said, before confirming that Hasan would face a firing squad.

“I really don’t care how he goes, as long as he goes. And I think that the death penalty is a very worthy way of going,” Trump said.

Asked whether he would watch, Trump described Hasan as “one of the worst killers”, adding: “He walked into a room, he started killing everybody.”

HEGSETH SETS OUT EXECUTION PLAN

Trump’s remarks followed Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth’s announcement that Hasan would be executed by a firing squad of soldiers at Fort Hood on December 3 at 1 pm.

Speaking to Real America’s Voice on Thursday, Hegseth said the location and time were chosen to correspond with the military installation and time of day of the attack.

“Of course we’re going to do it at Fort Hood. We’re going to do it on a Thursday. We’re going to do it at 1:00, which is when he did it,” Hegseth said.

He also said the public would be able to watch, arguing that the execution should demonstrate the consequences of such attacks.

Axios reported that the Pentagon said the execution would be livestreamed, but no platform was identified. Details of public access, including whether spectators would be admitted, remained unclear.

Earlier in the week, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said Trump had approved Hegseth’s recommendation that Hasan be executed by a US Army firing squad.

FIRST US MILITARY EXECUTION SINCE 1961

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

According to NPR, cited by Axios, the last US military execution by firing squad was in 1945, when Private Eddie Slovik was shot for desertion in France. The last public execution in the United States took place in 1936, when Rainey Bethea was hanged in Kentucky.

Hasan was convicted of killing 13 people and wounding more than 30 in the November 5, 2009 shooting at a medical building at Fort Hood, Texas. Twelve of those killed were soldiers and one was a civilian.

A military jury sentenced him to death in 2013. Hasan represented himself during his court-martial, called no witnesses and did not contest the charges.

Civilian police officers shot him during the attack, leaving him partially paralysed.

Prosecutors argued that the shooting was inspired by Al-Qaeda. Evidence presented at the court-martial showed that Hasan opposed US military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan and had exchanged online communications with Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born cleric linked to Al-Qaeda who was later killed in a US drone strike in Yemen.

With inputs from ANI