Nocturnal 
A survivor of the 2009 Fort Hood shooting says he plans to stand before the gunman at his execution and “look him in his eyes” – but he’s not convinced the public should be watching along with him.
Alonzo Lunsford, a retired US Army staff sergeant who was shot seven times in the attack, has spoken out after the Pentagon confirmed that the execution of Nidal Hasan will be livestreamed to the public.
Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist, killed 13 unarmed soldiers and injured 32 others when he opened fire inside a medical building at the Texas base in November 2009. He was sentenced to death by a military jury in 2013.
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the execution date and method in an interview with conservative outlet Real America’s Voice, saying Hasan will die by firing squad at Fort Hood on 3 December, the same date as the original attack, at around 1pm – also said to mirror the timing of the shooting. He described it as the first firing squad execution carried out by the US military since the Second World War.
“We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public, because people need to understand that there are serious consequences for these types of things,” Hegseth said, according to the Mirror. Asked whether Hasan had made any final requests, he replied: “Don’t care. We’ll see him on December 3rd.”
Lunsford, speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, said he agreed with the method of execution but questioned whether it should be shown uncensored to the wider public. “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,” he said.
He said the punishment “is befitting” given lethal injection, gas chamber or hanging would be “doing him a favour”. But he argued survivors, victims’ families and relatives “should be able to look at it”, even if he has reservations about a wider audience, particularly younger viewers, tuning in.
“I’m gonna be there, 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,'” he told the BBC. Despite everything, Lunsford said that as a Christian he has forgiven Hasan, adding: “I cannot heal if I don’t forgive him.”
Why it matters
No US execution has ever been broadcast to the public before, and the last military execution took place in 1961 when Army Private John Bennett was hanged. If it goes ahead, this would mark the first public execution in the US in close to a century.
Legal experts cited by the BBC have described the decision as being on “uncertain legal terrain”, and have said it may never actually happen. According to reports, the plan has already drawn bipartisan criticism, with politicians from both sides calling it “barbaric” and “disturbing” – concerns sharpened by recent scrutiny of botched executions in the US.
Practical details also remain unclear, including whether members of the public or only selected media witnesses will be able to view the livestream. Army regulation requires at least two media outlets to be chosen as official witnesses, but neither the Pentagon nor the White House has confirmed exactly how a wider public broadcast would work.
What happens next
President Donald Trump has approved the firing squad execution after Hasan’s final appeal was rejected in April 2025, with the Army secretary left to finalise the time and place. The Pentagon has said further details on the livestream will follow in the coming weeks.
For now, 3 December remains the date to watch – both for the Hasan case itself, and for a decision that could end up testing the legal boundaries of how executions are carried out and witnessed in America.
