Nidal Malik Hasan

Who is Nidal Malik Hasan?

Nidal Malik Hasan is a former United States Army psychiatrist and Medical Corps officer who fatally shot 13 people and injured more than 30 others in the Fort Hood mass shooting on November 5, 2009. At his court-martial in August 2013, Hasan admitted to the shootings. A jury panel of thirteen officers convicted him of 13 counts of premeditated murder, 32 counts of attempted murder, and unanimously recommended Hasan be formally dismissed from the service and sentenced to death. Hasan is incarcerated at the United States Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas awaiting execution while his case is reviewed by appellate courts.

During the six years that Hasan worked as an intern and resident at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, colleagues and superiors were deeply concerned about his behavior and comments. Hasan was not married at the time and was described as socially isolated, stressed by his work with soldiers, and upset about their accounts of warfare. Two days before the shooting, which occurred less than a month before he was due to deploy to Afghanistan, Hasan gave away many of his belongings to a neighbor.