Army shooter says he’ll be ‘martyr’ if executed

FORT HOOD, TEXAS — The U.S. army psychiatrist on trial for the deadly rampage at Fort Hood in 2009 told mental health experts he “would still be a martyr” if convicted and executed, according to a newspaper report Tuesday.

The remarks by Nidal Hasan in 2010 are being made public as his standby attorneys insist that he wants jurors to sentence him to death for the 13 murders. Hasan, 42, is acting as his own attorney and has told jurors he was the gunman.

Hasan told a panel of military mental health experts he wished he had been killed in the attack, because it would have meant God had chosen him for martyrdom, according to documents obtained by the New York Times.

The documents were part of a report that concluded Hasan was fit to stand trial.

Hasan was paralyzed from the waist down when police ended the rampage by shooting him in the back.

“I’m paraplegic and could be in jail for the rest of my life,” Hasan told the panel, according to the documents. “However, if I died by lethal injection, I would still be a martyr.”

The documents were released to the newspaper by John Galligan, Hasan’s civilian attorney.

Hasan has sat mostly silent as soldiers testified about being shot. Others who escaped injury described the attack inside a crowded building where soldiers were getting medical clearance for deployment to Afghanistan.

Hasan told the expert panel he denied having remorse. He justified his actions by saying that the soldiers he killed were “going against the Islamic Empire,” according to the Times.

“I don’t think what I did was wrong because it was for the greater cause of helping my Muslim brothers,” Hasan said.

Prosecutors began focusing on forensic evidence as the trial continued Tuesday.

FBI Special Agent Susan Martin, who responded to the shooting, said the crime scene was gruesome, with bodies and medical equipment “all over the floor.”

Martin testified that agents found hundreds of pieces of evidence, including 146 shell casings and six magazines, inside the building where the shootings took place.

In one area, Martin testified, “There were several bodies. … There was medical equipment all over the floor. It was a pretty gruesome scene.”

She said agents eventually ran out of numeric markers and used sticky notes.

Jurors also were shown a video taken during the initial walk-through of the building, which had been crowded with soldiers preparing to deploy, and some crime scene photos.