Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan is the U.S. Army psychiatrist accused of killing 12 fellow soldiers and a civilian in a shooting spree at Fort Hood in Texas on 5 November 2009. He has been charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder. Hasan was born in Virginia to Palestinian immigrants. He graduated from Virginia Tech in 1995 and enlisted in the Army, receiving a medical degree from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland. He then specialized in psychiatry and was assigned to Fort Hood in 2009. He was later described by colleagues as a devout Muslim who was angered by American military action in Muslim countries and didn't want to be deployed to Afghanistan. At about 1:20 pm on 5 November 2009, Hasan allegedly entered a processing center at Fort Hood and began shooting, killing 13 people and wounding 38 others. Two civilian police officers from the base, Sgt. Kimberly Munley and Sgt. Sgt. Mark Todd, arrived on the scene and exchanged fire with Hasan. Hasan was left critically injured, but survived. (His lawyer stated on 13 November that Hasan was paralyzed from the waist down.) Hasan is the only suspect in the shootings; Lt. Gen. Robert Cone, the commander of Fort Hood, has said that all indicators suggest Hasan acted alone. Hasan has not yet been tried for the crimes.

Hasan is single and has no children... Fort Hood is in central Texas, between Waco and Austin and near the town of Killeen... Sgt. Munley was shot and seriously injured by Hasan, but also survived; Sgt. Todd was not wounded... 12 of those killed were active-duty soldiers; one, Michael Cahill, was a physician's assistant who worked on the base and had previously served in the National Guard and U.S. Army Reserves. Those killed ranged in age from 19 to 62, and in rank from private to lieutenant colonel... Because Nidal was charged with premeditated murder, he can be given the death penalty if convicted.