Survivor of US Army shooting supports gunman's execution but questions livestream

A former US Army sergeant who survived the mass shooting on Fort Hood has said that while he supports the execution of the gunman by firing squad, he is concerned about it being livestreamed.

Alonzo Lunsford, who was shot seven times, told the BBC that the "method is befitting" for Nidal Hasan because other methods like lethal injection would be "doing him a favour".

Hasan, a US Army psychiatrist, fatally shot 13 unarmed US soldiers in a medical building at Fort Hood in 2009.

But while Lunsford agreed with the method, he said the execution is "not something you should view for entertainment purposes".

Speaking to Radio 4's Today programme on Friday, he said: "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."

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said the public will be able to view a livestream of the execution, saying it is important for people to see the consequences of this kind of crime.

If it goes ahead, and legal experts told the BBC it might not ever happen, it would be the first public execution in the US in almost a century.

Lunsford explained that while he is concerned about the "effect" and "message" a livestream would send to younger people, when it comes to the survivors, their families and the families of the victims, they "should be able to look at it".

"I'm gonna be there [to watch in person] 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 said.

"I don't really have any sympathy for him as far as firing squad vs lethal injection, hanging or gas chamber, because he didn't have that same compassion when he did the deed on 5 November," the former sergeant explained.

"I think the method is befitting for him because the lethal injection - that's doing him a favour. Gas chamber? Is doing him a favour."

But Lunsford said that as a Christian, he has forgiven Hasan because "I cannot heal if I don't forgive him".

"We're taught that with your last breath you can ask for forgiveness and I think that's what he [Hasan] should do," he added.

Telling his account of what happened that day, he said Hasan got out of his chair and jumped onto a counter, before pulling out a weapon and discharging rounds.

Lunford said he was looking for an exit via the back door, which was "two or three strides" away from him when he was first shot above his left eye and then "hit two more times in my back" as he crawled behind a desk.

"At that point I played dead," he said. When Hasan moved on, he grabbed a nearby wounded soldier and went outside, where Lunsford said Hasan came up behind them and shot him again.

One memory he said that "bothers" him from the day was of a woman who told Hasan she was pregnant.

"We heard a gunshot and the last thing that girl was saying was: 'Oh my god, my baby, my baby.'"

Lunsford said personnel don't carry weapons in medical facilities, and that Hasan "took the coward's way out" to attack them there.

"And then for him to say he is fighting for his cause? I've read the Quran, and everything that he said he was doing that was in the Quran is not supported by the Quran," he explained.

Hasan's execution was announced by the Pentagon earlier this week, in what will be the first military execution in more than 60 years.

Legal experts have told the BBC there are a number of hurdles around the livestreaming of this which could mean it is successfully challenged in court.

Some politicians have been vocal in their opposition.

Democratic Senator Chris Murphy told CNN it was "disgusting" while Republican Senator Thom Tillis said public executions were what "oppressive dictators" did.

"It should not be happening in America," he added in a post on X., external