US Army psychiatrist tells court he was the Fort Hood shooter

“The evidence will show that I was the shooter,” said US Army psychiatrist Major Nidal Malik Hasan, who was charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 of attempted murder in a shooting spree against fellow servicemen at the Fort Hood military facility, in Texas in 2009. Hasan, who made this opening statement before his court martial, faces a possible death sentence if convicted. The former major initially claimed he was trying to protect Muslim insurgents from US soldiers preparing to deploy to Iraq and Afghanistan. But the judge rejected his request to use that in his defense. He also barred the American-born son of Palestinian parents from making statements about his religious beliefs. Hasan was shot by police responding to the attack, leaving him paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair.