Nidal Hasan firing squad approved by Trump

US President Donald Trump has approved execution by firing squad for Nidal Hasan, the former US Army psychiatrist sentenced to death for killing 13 people at Fort Hood in Texas in 2009, the Pentagon said Monday.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recommended “death by U.S. Army firing squad” and Trump approved it. Parnell said the Army secretary would set the time and place of the execution.

The execution would be the first carried out by the US military since 1961.

Hasan was sentenced to death by a military jury in 2013 for the mass shooting at Fort Hood, which also wounded more than two dozen people. Twelve of those killed and 30 of those wounded were soldiers.

During his trial, Hasan conducted his own defense, called no witnesses, gave no testimony and did not try to deny the charges. Court-appointed defense attorneys expressed concern that he was seeking execution.

Hasan opened fire on November 5, 2009, at a medical facility on the Fort Hood base, which was used as a staging point for soldiers deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan. He was shot and partially paralyzed by a civilian police officer who responded to the attack.