A survivor of the Fort Hood mass shooting says he looks forward to attending the execution of the gunman he watched kill his colleagues nearly 17 years ago, but he is uneasy about the Pentagon’s plan to livestream the event for the public.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Thursday that Nidal Hasan’s execution by firing squad will be broadcast online. Hasan, who described the November 2009 shooting as an act of jihad, is scheduled to be executed on Dec. 3 at Fort Hood, where he killed 13 people and wounded 32.
Alonzo Lunsford, a former Army sergeant who served from 1990 to 2013, was among those shot. He was hit seven times, including in the head and stomach, and witnessed Hasan kill several close friends. Lunsford says he wants the gunman to look at his eyes and understand he is no longer a victim, but a survivor.
Lunsford welcomes President Trump’s approval of the execution and supports the use of a firing squad, saying it matches how Hasan shot them. Yet he objects to the live‑stream, arguing it would turn the event into a spectacle and send a wrong message to the world, saying the United States should set a moral standard.
Survivor Dayna Ferguson, who was 21 and an Army specialist when the shooting occurred, was surprised by the announcement but acknowledges that death and war are often documented through video. She was shot three times and survived, crediting a birth defect that caused a bullet to ricochet. Republican Rep. Austin Scott and Democrat Rep. Adam Smith both criticized the livestream plan, saying it would undermine the seriousness of the legal system.
