President Donald Trump has approved the execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, a US Army psychiatrist convicted for the 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, the Pentagon announced Monday. Hasan will be executed by firing squad, marking the first military execution in the United States since 1961.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recommended the death sentence, which Trump subsequently authorized, according to Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell. The timing and location of the execution will be determined by the Secretary of the Army.

Hasan, who is of Palestinian descent and a US-born Muslim, was found guilty in 2013 by a military jury for shooting 13 people dead and injuring more than two dozen at the Fort Hood military base. The attack occurred on November 5, 2009, at a medical facility on the base, which serves as a deployment hub for troops heading to combat zones in Iraq and Afghanistan. Twelve of the victims killed and 30 of those wounded were soldiers. Hasan himself was shot by a civilian police officer during the incident, resulting in partial paralysis.

During his trial, Hasan opted to defend himself, declining to call witnesses or testify and making no effort to contest the charges. His court-appointed attorneys expressed concerns that he was effectively seeking a death sentence. Evidence presented in court indicated Hasan’s opposition to US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and noted his online communications with Anwar Al-Awlaki, a radical cleric linked to Al-Qaeda who was killed in a US drone strike in Yemen.

While gun violence is a persistent issue in the United States, shootings on military installations remain uncommon. Recent incidents include a 2025 shooting at a Georgia military base where a soldier wounded five troops; a 2019 attack by a US sailor in Hawaii that killed two and wounded one; and a separate 2019 shooting by a Saudi military student at a Florida base, which resulted in three deaths. In 2015, a Kuwaiti-born US citizen attacked two military facilities in Tennessee, killing four Marines and a sailor; the FBI characterized the incident as inspired by a foreign terrorist organization. Additionally, in 2013, a shooter killed 12 individuals and injured eight at the Washington Navy Yard before being fatally shot by police.