Former U.S. Army major and Palestinian-American psychiatrist Nidal Malik Hassan, 56, is scheduled to be executed by an Army firing squad for the November 5, 2009 Fort Hood massacre in Texas, where he opened fire inside a military readiness processing center, killing 12 active-duty civilian soldiers and an active-duty U.S. soldier. 32 others. Hassan shouted "Allahu Akbar" when he opened fire. With a semi-automatic gun. President Donald Trump approved the firing squad, with the Secretary of the Army now in charge of setting the date and location. During his 2013 court-martial, Hassan claimed he was acting in defense of Taliban fighters, saying he wanted to prevent American soldiers from deploying to Afghanistan and killing Muslims Going forward, Hasan would become the first US service member to be executed by the military since 1961, when Pvt. John Bennett was hanged at Fort Leavenworth. It would also be the first known US military execution by firing squad since World War II. The last known case was Pvt. Eddy Slovik, who was executed by firing squad in France in 1945 after being convicted of desertion.