Nidal Hasan US Army major who carried out the shooting at a military base in Texas in 2009 Date of Birth: 08.09.1970 Country: USA

Biography of Nidal Hasan

Nidal Malik "AbduWali" Hasan was born on September 8, 1970, in Arlington County, Virginia. He was the eldest of three sons in a Muslim family of Palestinian immigrants, Malik and Hanan Hasan, who came to America from the West Bank of the Jordan River. In 1985, Nidal and his parents moved to Roanoke, Virginia, where they purchased a bar in 1987 and opened a Middle Eastern restaurant and small store in 1995.

After graduating from William Fleming High School in Roanoke in 1988, Hasan joined the U.S. Army against his parents' wishes. Instead of serving on active duty, he attended Barstow Community College in California and then transferred to Virginia Western Community College, where he graduated with an associate degree in 1992. Hasan later enrolled at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, earning a bachelor's degree in biochemistry in 1995 or 1997.

In 1997, Hasan completed basic military training and received specialized training as a military psychiatrist. He attended the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, earning a doctorate in 2001 or 2003. Hasan then spent six years practicing medicine at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., where he completed training in psychiatry in 2007 and obtained a master's degree in public health in 2009.

Colleagues at the medical center noted that Hasan sought psychological help for himself during his early years there. Despite his reserved nature, friends and family described him as a devout, religious individual who began attending mosque regularly after his parents' deaths in 1998 and 2001. One of the imams he listened to was Anwar al-Awlaki, a spiritual mentor to some of the perpetrators of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. Hasan corresponded with al-Awlaki from 2008, after he had left the U.S. for Yemen.

Hasan reportedly faced harassment from fellow soldiers due to his religious beliefs, which he complained about to family and friends. As early as 2004, while providing psychological counseling to soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, he contemplated leaving the military. However, contractual obligations prevented him from resigning, and the Army could not discharge him early due to a shortage of psychiatrists and Arab-Americans. Although he initially believed he couldn't leave the Army before his contract ended in 2010, legal experts later determined that he could have. In May 2009, Hasan was promoted to major and transferred to the Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center at Fort Hood, Texas, with plans to deploy to Afghanistan.

On November 5, 2009, Hasan visited a mosque near the military base and bid farewell to friends, telling them, "I'm going on a journey, and I won't be here tomorrow." He made similar comments to some of his colleagues, whom they interpreted as a normal farewell before his deployment. Later that day, during a medical examination for soldiers preparing for deployment, Hasan sat at an empty table, remained still for a moment, prayed, and then shouted "Allahu Akbar!" as he opened fire on his fellow soldiers with two pistols. He killed 13 people, wounded 32 others, and was shot by police officers before the shooting ended. Hasan, critically injured, was taken to a hospital where he was placed under strict security. Although he regained consciousness a few days later, he refused to speak with investigators. His lawyer later revealed that Hasan would not plead guilty and that the defense would argue his mental incompetence.

Hasan faced charges of 13 counts of murder, with the possibility of an additional charge for killing a pregnant woman. He was to be tried in a military tribunal, and the death penalty was likely, as no military tribunal had imposed it since 1961. There were also discussions about charging him with terrorism, which would transfer his case to a civilian court. In December 2009, it was announced that Hasan would undergo a psychiatric evaluation. The following day, it was revealed that he would also face 32 charges of attempted murder.

The psychiatric evaluation took over a year, and in January 2011, a medical review board declared Hasan mentally competent. The Fort Hood shooting prompted calls for better monitoring of soldiers' mental health and protection of Muslim soldiers from harassment. During his service, Hasan received the National Defense Service Medal twice, as well as the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal and Army Service Ribbons.

Official sources stated that Hasan was unmarried and had no children. However, a former neighbor claimed to have seen him with two sons who attended a local school. One of his brothers, Anas, works as a lawyer in Ramallah, Palestine, while the other, Eyad, works in the human resources department of a medical company in Virginia.