Pentagon: Execution of Palestinian-American Fort Hood gunman will be broadcast live

The execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, the former US Army officer who killed 13 people in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting, will be broadcast live, according to a Pentagon announcement issued overnight Thursday.

Hasan is scheduled to be executed by firing squad on December 3 at 1 p.m. at the Texas military base where he carried out the attack. The scheduled time marks the hour the shooting began.

According to the announcement, it would be the US military’s first execution by firing squad since 1945, the country’s first public execution since 1936 and the first execution broadcast live in US history.

The announcement followed remarks by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who said the execution would be open to the public so people could witness the consequences of such crimes.

Hasan, an Army major and military psychiatrist of Palestinian descent, opened fire in a crowded waiting area where soldiers were undergoing medical checks before deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. He killed 13 people and wounded 32 others.

Hasan, who opposed US military operations in Muslim countries, was shot by responding police officers and left paralyzed. He uses a wheelchair.

A military jury convicted Hasan of premeditated murder in 2013 and sentenced him to death. President Donald Trump reportedly approved the execution last week following a recommendation from military legal authorities.

Hasan, 56, is one of four prisoners on the US military’s death row.