BBC details 2009 attack scene as Pentagon plans livestream execution
The BBC detailed on Thursday that Nidal Hasan’s 2009 attack at Fort Hood took place in a crowded medical building where deploying soldiers were awaiting check-ups and vaccines. Hasan fatally shot 13 unarmed U.S. soldiers in the November 5, 2009, attack, which the BBC reported was the deadliest ever non-combat attack on an American military base.
Hasan, a U.S. Army psychiatrist from Virginia, admitted in court that he was the gunman and apologized for “any mistakes.” During his 2013 court-martial, he said he believed he was protecting Muslims and the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Thursday that Hasan’s execution would be livestreamed publicly. “We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public,” Hegseth said, according to the BBC. “Because people need to understand that there’s serious consequences for these types of things.”
A Defense Department official confirmed to the BBC that the execution would be livestreamed. Hegseth also told the conservative outlet Real America’s Voice that Hasan is “gonna get a firing squad of soldiers. As it should be.”
The execution is scheduled to take place at Fort Hood in Texas on December 3, the secretary of the U.S. Army said Tuesday. The Pentagon announced earlier this week that it would execute Hasan in the first military execution in more than 60 years, and the first by firing squad since the end of World War Two.
The BBC has contacted the White House for comment on whether President Donald Trump supports a publicly broadcast execution. Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said Monday that Hegseth had made the recommendation and that Trump had approved it.