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A survivor of the 2009 Fort Hood massacre says she wishes the mass shooter could be killed one time for every life he took that day – but even she is questioning the military’s decision to livestream his death.
Nidal Hasan, 56, is scheduled to face execution by firing squad on Dec. 3, 2026, and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced earlier this month that it will be made available to stream to the public.
“Why would people want to see that?” Julia Wilson, a former Defense Department civilian employee who survived the shooting 17 years ago, told Digital.
Wilson wants the mass shooter executed, and, as a victim, she wants to attend his execution and look him in the eye.
Hasan, an Army psychiatrist at the time, walked into a soldier readiness center on Nov, 5, 2009, on the Texas Army post and opened fire, killing 13 people and wounding 32 others. Following a military court-martial verdict, Hasan was sentenced to death on Aug. 28, 2013.
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Nidal Hasan has been sentenced to death for the mass shooting at Fort Hood. (Getty Images)
On Oct. 2, President Donald Trump approved the death sentence, and days later Hegseth announced it would be by a public firing squad.
“Personally, I do want to be there,” Wilson told Digital. “I do want to look him in the eye to let him know, ‘Look, I may have been your victim that day, but I’m not your victim anymore. I survived you. My child survived you, a lot of us survived you. You didn’t do as much damage as you thought you were going to.'”
“You did what you did,” Wilson continued of Hasan’s attack. “Too bad we can’t kill you 13 times over.”
But Wilson has reservations about the decision to broadcast Hasan’s execution to the public.
“I’m kind of shocked that they’re going to go so far as to televise it,” Wilson said. “I don’t really know how to feel about that.”
She fears broadcasting his death could pose a risk of exposing children to the kind of violence she has spent nearly 17 years trying to forget.
“Unfortunately, some children may end up seeing that, that don’t need to see something like that,” Wilson said. “Seeing my soldiers murdered that day, that was the first time I’ve ever seen anything like that. And I can never wash it out of my mind.”
“I don’t know why anybody would want to actually see something like that happen.”
Wilson’s concerns echo objections raised by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
“Hasan should face the death penalty, but making his execution public and streaming it? Beyond disgusting,” Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., posted to X on Thursday. “Public executions are what oppressive dictatorships like Iran and Afghanistan do. It should not be happening in America.”
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Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., makes his way to a vote in the U.S. Capitol on Thursday, April 30, 2026. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc)
Trump said Saturday that he will make the decision of whether or not to livestream Hasan’s execution, acknowledging that he knows “what the military would like to do” following Hegseth’s confirmation.
Vice President J.D. Vance also said Friday that he was not sure that the federal government will be livestreaming the execution, also adding that he would not personally view the livestream.
“As far as the execution, I have a lot of mixed feelings on it, to be quite honest,” Wilson said. “Yes, I’m glad that it’s moving forward. No, I…don’t ever want to see another human being die.”
“But in the same fold, an eye for an eye.”
Wilson was working at Fort Hood’s Soldier Readiness Processing Center when Hasan opened fire. At the time, she was nine months pregnant and had reached her due date.
She recalled the moment when she first saw soldiers down and heard the gunfire after pulling into the parking lot upon returning to the center from a lunch break with her mom.
“Before I got the chance to shut off my engine and really get out of the vehicle, that’s when the gunfire started,” Wilson said. “I had several things go through my mind. You know, they say that you have fight, flight or freeze. I kind of had all three. “
Photographs of victims of the shooting are seen surrounding the podium where the memorial service that U.S. President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama will attend for the thirteen victims of the shooting rampage by U.S. Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan on November 10, 2009 in Fort Hood, Texas. Hasan, an army psychiatrist, killed 13 people and wounded 30 in a shooting at the military base on November 5, 2009. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
She recounted the chaos during the shooting after going into the center building for the first time since taking cover in her car, which she says her supervisor advised her to do.
“Eventually he came back for me and I figured, ‘Okay, maybe… I’m a little bit out of the chaos.’ No, absolutely not,” Wilson said.
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She continued, “I get into my building. Desks are tossed everywhere. It’s a total wreck. There’s blood on the wall, blood on the floor, people working on people. And I just kind of locked up.”
“A wounded soldier came in the door opposite of me and said, ‘He’s in the building, he’s shooting, get the f–– out of here. “
Wilson said that Hasan receiving the death penalty will still not bring full justice to the victims of the tragedy.
She called out the federal government for classifying the shooting as “workplace violence,” urging the shooting to be reclassified as an act of domestic terrorism.
“We’ve been betrayed by the government for 17 years,” Wilson said. “They left this as workplace violence. They never declared it domestic terrorism because it was all about, ‘Hey, we need to be politically correct and watch out for his rights.’ Well, what about my rights? And what about me? And what about my family? And what about those that were murdered? And what about those that were injured?”
Wilson has written a letter to Trump calling for the reclassification of the shooting to be recognized as domestic terrorism.
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“It’s time for healing, Wilson said. “And that healing can not start until the situation is fully rectified, until there’s full justice.”
