Survivors of the Fort Hood massacre are backing President Donald Trump’s choice to stop a public livestream of Nidal Hasan’s execution, saying justice does not need to turn into a show. Their reaction centers on dignity, trauma, and the fear that broadcasting the killing could hand terrorist groups a ready-made piece of propaganda.
Hasan is still scheduled to be executed by firing squad on Dec. 3, 2026, and the immediate families of the victims will be allowed to watch in person if they choose. What changed is the plan to put the execution in front of the general public, a move that survivors said crossed a line.
Alonzo Lunsford, who was shot seven times during the 2009 attack, called Trump’s decision a positive step. He said the country should not celebrate death like entertainment, adding that it says something better about America when it refuses to turn punishment into a spectacle.
“It proves that we are a better people, a better nation, and that we’re not barbaric,” Lunsford said. “We don’t glorify such actions.”
Lunsford supports Hasan’s death sentence and says a firing squad is fitting, but he drew a hard boundary around public broadcasting. In his view, people should not be talking about tailgates, cookouts, or treating the execution like some kind of pay-per-view event.
“For it to be made a spectacle for everyone to witness how they’re gonna do a tailgate or, ‘Hey, we’re gonna have a cookout and we’re gonna watch this man be put to death.’ No, it’s not about that,” Lunsford said. “It’s not a spectacle. It’s not a pay-per-view event or a WWE wrestling match or even a boxing match.”
He also warned that footage could be turned against the United States by extremist groups looking for recruiting material. That was one of the strongest reasons survivors pushed back so quickly, since they saw a public stream as something that could be twisted into a weapon long after the execution ended.
“You don’t want that to be used as a tool for ISIS or al-Qaeda to recruit and say, ‘Hey, this is what happens to you if you do this against the infidel,'” Lunsford said.
Julia Wilson, who was working as a civilian employee at Fort Hood when Hasan opened fire, also welcomed the change. She was nine months pregnant at the time of the attack, which happened on her due date, and she has said the violence left scars that never really fade.
Wilson said she was already opposed to a livestream because she did not want more people to be forced into trauma. Hearing that the broadcast would not go forward brought relief, and she said she was glad the government had stepped back.
“I’m ecstatic about that,” she told Fox News Digital, reacting to the news that the plan to livestream the event would not proceed.
Her concern is less about Hasan and more about what the public would be exposed to. Wilson argued that seeing someone killed, even when justice is deserved, can still hit people hard and leave lasting damage.
“I’m worried about other people’s mental health,” she continued. “I don’t think the government… really put a lot of thought into how this was going to go down and how it was going to transpire until today.”
“I don’t think they really thought about how this may affect people,” said Wilson. “Seeing something like that affects your mental health. I don’t care who you are. I don’t care what you’ve seen. Seeing someone murdered in front of you or killed in front of you affects your mental health, whether they deserve it or not.”
She also pointed to the internet problem that comes with anything filmed and posted online. Once a graphic moment is uploaded, it can live forever, pop up in searches, and turn up where it should never be, including in front of kids.
“Once it’s on out there, it’s out there,” she said.
Trump said he initially thought a public stream might send a strong message and show how the country deals with terrorists. Still, he ultimately sided with those who did not want the execution turned into a visual event for millions of strangers.
“I think streaming the execution for all to see might have been a strong deterrent for the World to witness how America deals with Terrorists and SCUM like Hasan but, many very good and well meaning people would rather not watch him die, through streaming, or through any other visual device,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“He will die, as scheduled, by firing squad, but this event will not be streamed,” Trump continued. “That said, the execution may be viewed in person by the immediate families of the victims, if they so choose. They deserve to witness JUSTICE!”
For Lunsford, the decision is tied to something bigger than one execution. It is about refusing to hand Hasan the kind of attention that could linger online and keep feeding the very ideology that inspired the attack in the first place.
He also went back to the days before the shooting, saying the warning signs were there and that the Army handled Hasan badly before the massacre. In his view, the system failed to deal with a dangerous man and simply moved the problem instead of stopping it.
“We knew this guy had issues,” Lunsford said. “If you are privy to the ticking time bomb report, you will see what he was talking about. This guy had issues and they just passed the buck and moved him from Walter Reed to Fort Hood.”
Even now, the memories are not abstract for survivors. Lunsford said daily life still carries reminders of what happened, from medical visits to routine moments that bring the attack back into focus.
“It’s gonna be a traumatic thing for, at least for the families of the fallen,” he said. “They’ll be able to close the chapter and hopefully close the book.”
“Every day we get up, we come to the VA hospital or we have to take our meds in the morning or we get ready to do something that we normally would have been doing prior to 5 November ’09 that we’re no longer able to do now, that’s a constant reminder,” he said. “I am no longer a victim of his,” Lunsford added. “I’m a survivor.”
