A survivor of the 2009 Fort Hood shooting says he plans to attend the execution of Nidal Hasan and look the killer in the eyes before the firing squad carries out its sentence.
Alonzo Lunsford, who was shot seven times during the attack and retired from the military in 2013, told the BBC that Hasan's death by firing squad at the same Texas location where he killed thirteen unarmed soldiers was "fitting."
"I'm gonna be there [to watch] 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.
Lunsford described the method as appropriate because other methods such as lethal injection or the gas chamber would be too compassionate for such an evil killer.
"[Hasan] didn't have that same compassion when he did the deed on 5 November," he said.
The Pentagon confirmed Thursday that Hasan's execution, scheduled for December 3 at Fort Hood, will be livestreamed, according to a Pentagon official who spoke with ABC News.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said in an interview aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln that he wanted the execution to be public so people understand there are serious consequences for such actions.
"He's going to get a firing squad of soldiers, as it should be," Hegseth said. "And we'll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it's public, because people need to understand that there's serious consequences for these types of things."
Hegseth added that Fort Hood was chosen because that was where Hasan carried out the attack, and that the execution time of one o'clock was selected to roughly coincide with when the shooting began.
President Donald Trump approved the execution on October 2, following a recommendation from Hegseth, according to OANN. The approval came only days after the botched lethal-injection execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee, who survived.
Internal documents reviewed by ABC News show that officials had been preparing to use lethal injection if Trump authorized the execution of one of the four prisoners on the service's death row. The choice of a firing squad forced the Army to abandon months of planning.
The military has not used the firing squad method since 1945 and no longer has a modern procedure for administering it. The last military execution took place on April 13, 1961, when Army Pvt. John Bennett was executed by hanging.
The decision to livestream the execution has drawn reactions from across the political spectrum.
Laura Loomer, a conservative commentator, wrote on X that "every single execution of every single terrorist should be live streamed because the American people should rejoice in killing the enemies of America."
She added that there should be watch parties for the execution of Nidal Hasan.
Senator Tom Tillis, however, wrote on X that live streaming the execution is "beyond disgusting."
"Public executions are what oppressive dictatorships do," Tillis wrote. "It should not be happening in America."
According to Amnesty International, only two countries carried out public executions in the last year: Iran and the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist, walked into a medical building at Fort Hood in 2009 where soldiers were waiting in long lines to receive immunizations and medical clearance for deployment. He shouted "Allahu akbar" and opened fire with a laser-sighted handgun.
Investigators recovered 146 shell casings inside the building and dozens more outside, where Hasan shot at the backs of soldiers fleeing toward the parking lot.
Lunsford recalled hearing the harrowing scream of "my baby!" from pregnant private Francheska Velez, 21, as she was shot and killed.
John Galligan, a retired Army colonel and former military judge at Fort Hood who has represented Hasan for years as a civilian attorney, told ABC News that Hasan was notified late at night that Trump had approved the execution and that no defense attorney was present when he received the notice.
Last year, the Supreme Court declined to review Hasan's court-martial conviction. However, Hasan could still seek habeas corpus relief in federal court, potentially delaying the execution.
The execution would mark the first public execution in the United States in nearly a century. Public executions were once common in the U.S., but states began restricting and abolishing the practice in the mid-19th and early 20th centuries.
Next News Network could not independently verify the claims and details surrounding the execution plans.
Our Take
The decision to livestream the execution of Nidal Hasan is a bold move that puts America's commitment to justice on full display. For too long, the enemies of our nation have been allowed to fade into the shadows of a broken system that coddles terrorists and treats mass murderers with kid gloves. Hegseth's insistence that the world watch as Hasan faces the consequences of his jihadist rampage is exactly the kind of transparency and strength the American people deserve.
Make no mistake: this is not about vengeance. This is about deterrence. When a radical Islamist betrayer like Hasan murders thirteen unarmed soldiers and wounds thirty-two more, the response should be swift, certain, and public. The message needs to be unmistakable to every would-be terrorist: if you attack Americans, you will not spend decades in a comfortable cell while lawyers file endless appeals. You will face a firing squad of American soldiers, and the whole world will bear witness.
Critics like Senator Tillis call this "disgusting" and compare it to oppressive dictatorships. But there is nothing oppressive about a nation executing a man who committed an act of war on its soil. Hasan was not a common criminal; he was an enemy combatant who murdered in the name of a hateful ideology. Our military justice system, which sentenced him to death, is one of the most rigorous and fair in the world. Carrying out that sentence publicly does not make us like Iran or the Taliban; it makes us a nation that does not hide from the reality of justice.
The survivors like Alonzo Lunsford, who will be there to look Hasan in the eyes, deserve nothing less. For the families who lost loved ones, for the soldiers who still carry the scars of that day, this is not about entertainment. It is about closure, and about a nation finally standing up and saying that we will not tolerate terrorism, we will not apologize for our strength, and we will not look away.
