An Army sergeant who was shot seven times by Fort Hood terrorist Nidal Hasan said Friday that he plans on being at his former colleague’s public execution to “look at him in his eyes.”
Alonzo Lunsford said it was “fitting” that Hasan will die by firing squad at the same Texas location where he killed 13 unarmed soldiers in 2009 in one of the deadliest ever shootings at a US military installation.
“I’m gonna be there [to watch] 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,’” Lunsford told the BBC.
“I don’t really have any sympathy for him,” Lunsford, who retired from the military in 2013, said of the terrorist masquerading as an Army major set to die in the first public execution in the US in almost 100 years.
Lunsford said he survived by playing dead after being repeatedly shot by Hasan as he opened fire on soldiers in a medical building after shouting “Allahu Akbar,” Arabic for “God is great.”
He blasted the gunman for “taking the coward’s way out” for the massacre that has left Hasan on death row since August 2013 after being convicted of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder.
The method — death by public firing squad — is “fitting” because other methods, such as lethal injection or the gas chamber, would be too compassionate for such an evil killer, he said.
“[Hasan] didn’t have that same compassion when he did the deed on 5 November,” he said.
Lunsford was shot seven times — including in the back — and crawled behind a desk where he played dead.
He recalled hearing the harrowing scream of “my baby!” from pregnant private Francheska Velez, 21, as she was shot and killed.
Hasan was left paralyzed from the waist down after being shot by law enforcement.
It’s unclear if he will appeal, with experts suggesting the execution could be delayed beyond the 2028 presidential election.
“It frankly might outlast the current administration, and who knows if the next one will have the same penchant for executions,” Eugene R. Fidell, a visiting lecturer at Yale Law School specializing in military law, said.
The military hasn’t executed a service member by firing squad since World War II.
The last military execution took place on April 13, 1961, when Army Pvt. John Bennett was executed by hanging.
With Post wires
