Hasan killed 13 unarmed soldiers at Fort Hood in 2009
Alonzo Lunsford, a former US Army sergeant who survived the 2009 Fort Hood mass shooting, told the BBC he supports the firing squad execution of gunman Nidal Hasan but questions broadcasting it. Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Friday, Lunsford said the “method is befitting” for Hasan because other methods like lethal injection would be “doing him a favour.”
Hasan, a US Army psychiatrist, fatally shot 13 unarmed US soldiers in a medical building at Fort Hood in 2009. Lunsford was shot seven times in the attack.
Lunsford agreed with the execution method, but said the livestream is “not something you should view for entertainment purposes.” He told the BBC: “To show the whole thing without it being censored for the general public, for me personally, I don’t agree with that, but it’s not about my personal belief.”
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said the public will be able to view a livestream of the execution, calling it important for people to see the consequences of this kind of crime. If it goes ahead — and legal experts told the BBC it might not ever happen — it would be the first public execution in the US in almost a century. Hasan’s execution will be the first military execution in more than 60 years, the Pentagon said.
Lunsford said he is concerned about the “effect” and “message” a livestream would send to younger people, but that survivors, their families and the families of the victims “should be able to look at it.”
“I’m gonna be there [to watch in person] and before they pull the trigger, I want him to look at me in my eyes and I look at him in his eyes and I want him to know: ‘Dude you failed, I’m still here,’” Lunsford said.
“I don’t really have any sympathy for him as far as firing squad vs lethal injection, hanging or gas chamber, because he didn’t have that same compassion when he did the deed on 5 November,” Lunsford said. “I think the method is befitting for him because the lethal injection - that’s doing him a favour. Gas chamber? Is doing him a favour.”
But Lunsford said that as a Christian, he has forgiven Hasan because “I cannot heal if I don’t forgive him.” He added: “We’re taught that with your last breath you can ask for forgiveness and I think that’s what he [Hasan] should do.”
Recounting the 2009 attack, Lunsford said Hasan got out of his chair and jumped onto a counter, before pulling out a weapon and discharging rounds. Lunsford said he was looking for an exit via the back door, which was “two or three strides” away from him, when he was first shot above his left eye and then “hit two more times in my back” as he crawled behind a desk.
“At that point I played dead,” he said. When Hasan moved on, he grabbed a nearby wounded soldier and went outside, where Lunsford said Hasan came up behind them and shot him again.
One memory he said “bothers” him from the day was of a woman who told Hasan she was pregnant. “We heard a gunshot and the last thing that girl was saying was: ‘Oh my god, my baby, my baby.’”
Lunsford said personnel don’t carry weapons in medical facilities, and that Hasan attacked them there.
“And then for him to say he is fighting for his cause? I’ve read the Quran, and everything that he said he was doing that was in the Quran is not supported by the Quran,” Lunsford said.
Legal experts have told the BBC there are a number of hurdles around the livestreaming that could mean it is successfully challenged in court.
Some politicians have been vocal in their opposition. Democratic Senator Chris Murphy told CNN it was “disgusting” while Republican Senator Thom Tillis said public executions were what “oppressive dictators” did. “It should not be happening in America,” Tillis added in a post on X.