President Trump said the Fort Hood shooter can be executed by firing squad, according to reporting by NPR published on Tuesday, October 6, 2026. The statement raises the possibility of a method of military execution that the United States has not employed in more than eight decades.
Historical records cited by NPR show that the last execution carried out by the U.S. military occurred in 1961 and was conducted by hanging. The most recent military execution by firing squad took place in 1945, when an American soldier was shot for desertion during World War II.
The remarks, reported by NPR on Tuesday afternoon, direct attention to the rarity of military executions in modern American history. No military execution has been carried out in roughly 65 years, and the firing-squad method has been unused by the armed forces since the closing months of World War II.
NPR reported the development on October 6, 2026, at 3:50 PM ET. The network noted that audio coverage would be available later in the day.
The case has drawn national attention, and the president's comments add a new dimension to the long-running legal and political debate over the appropriate punishment for the Fort Hood shooting. Any move toward execution by firing squad would represent a departure from decades of military practice, given that the last such execution occurred in 1945 and the last military execution of any kind was in 1961.
