Fort Hood Survivor Urges Americans Not to Turn Execution Into Spectacle
Alonzo Lunsford, who was shot seven times in the 2009 Fort Hood attack, supports Nidal Hasan's execution but warns against live-streaming it as entertainment, as the Army prepares the first firing squad execution in 86 years.
Alonzo Lunsford, a former Army staff sergeant who survived being shot seven times during the 2009 Fort Hood massacre, has a message for Americans planning to watch the scheduled execution of the gunman: do not treat it as entertainment. Lunsford supports the death sentence for Nidal Hasan, the Army psychiatrist who killed 13 people and wounded 32 others at the Texas post, and he intends to witness the execution himself. But he is troubled by the decision to live-stream the event, calling it a spectacle that dishonors the victims.
«It's not a spectacle,» Lunsford said. «There's nothing glorified in the smell of human flesh, blood and gunpowder. It's a smell you will never forget. It's a taste that you will never forget.» He added that Americans should not gather to watch the execution as if it were a party. «That's not something you sit around and say, hey, let's get some popcorn and look at this execution,» he said. «We as a people, we're better than that. This ain't no country where we do public beheadings and stonings and think it's fine.»
The U.S. government plans to execute Hasan by firing squad on Dec. 3, 2026, at Fort Hood. It would be the first Army execution by firing squad in 86 years, and the decision to make it public has drawn opposition from across the political spectrum. War Secretary Pete Hegseth has defended the move, saying Americans need to understand the consequences of Hasan's crimes. «We'll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it's public,» Hegseth said in an interview. «Because people need to understand that there's serious consequences for these types of things.»
But Vice President JD Vance cast doubt on whether the Pentagon would follow through with the livestream, telling reporters he had no intention of watching it himself. «I see these announcements. I don't know that that's actually going to happen,» he said. Even some Republicans who support the death penalty have spoken out against the public broadcast. Rep. Austin Scott of Georgia wrote on X that he supports the sentence but added, «live-streaming executions is what jihadists do. America is better than that.» Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina called the plan «beyond disgusting,» saying, «Public executions are what oppressive dictatorships like Iran and Afghanistan do. It should not be happening in America.»
The nation's Catholic bishops have gone further, opposing both the execution and the decision to make it public. Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the decision is a «barbaric promotion of a culture of death» that «must be reconsidered.» He added that the public execution «even of one who has done grave harm will only further undermine the moral fabric of our nation and be a blight on the conscience of its people.»
The decision has also raised national security concerns. Hasan, who was left paralyzed from the waist down after being shot during the 2009 attack, has previously spoken about becoming a martyr. Matthew Levitt, a former Treasury counterterrorism official and director of the Washington Institute's Reinhard Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, warned that making footage widely available could give terrorist groups material to exploit. «It seems like a poor decision to provide terrorist groups with a video clip they can effectively splice into radicalization propaganda,» Levitt said. «There's no tangible benefit to live streaming an execution, and it may, in fact, exacerbate the terrorist threat.»
For Lunsford, the execution remains deeply personal. He was working at Fort Hood's Soldier Readiness Processing Center on Nov. 5, 2009, when Hasan opened fire. He recalled watching Hasan kill a colleague before turning the weapon on him. Lunsford was shot above his left eye, fell to the floor and played dead before eventually escaping outside, where Hasan shot him again. «I've accepted the fact I'm gonna live with the pain for the rest of my life,» he said. He has since found purpose in coaching basketball, mentoring young people and helping others struggling with their mental health.
Despite his support for the execution, Lunsford says he has forgiven Hasan. «The weird thing about it, I've forgiven him because my faith does not allow me to heal and continue unless I forgive that man,» he said. But forgiveness does not mean sparing Hasan from punishment. Lunsford said he would even prefer that one of Hasan's surviving victims or the relatives of those he killed be allowed to pull the trigger. He also urged adults to decide for themselves whether to watch the livestream, but said children should not see it. «Don't do that because when you do that, you're dishonoring those that made the supreme sacrifice, those who are no longer here,» he said. «Those are heroes.»
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