But Lunsford said that, as a Christian, he had forgiven Hasan because "I cannot heal if I don't forgive him".

"We're taught that with your last breath you can ask for forgiveness and I think that's what he [Hasan] should do," he added.

Telling his account of what happened that day, he said Hasan got out of his chair and jumped onto a counter, before pulling out a weapon and discharging it.

Lunsford said he had been looking for an exit via the back door, which was "two or three strides" away from him when he was first shot above his left eye and then "hit two more times in my back" as he crawled behind a desk.

"At that point I played dead," he said. When Hasan moved on, Lunsford grabbed a nearby wounded soldier and went outside, where he said Hasan came up behind them and shot him again.

One memory he said that "bothers" him from the day was of a woman who told Hasan she was pregnant.

"We heard a gunshot and the last thing that girl was saying was: 'Oh my god, my baby, my baby.'"

Lunsford said personnel did not carry weapons in medical facilities and that Hasan "took the coward's way out" to attack them there.

"And then for him to say he is fighting for his cause? I've read the Quran and everything that he said he was doing that was in the Quran is not supported by the Quran," he explained.

Hasan's execution was announced by the Pentagon earlier this week, in what will be the first military execution in more than 60 years.

Legal experts have told the BBC there are a number of hurdles around the livestreaming of this which could mean it is successfully challenged in court.

Some politicians have been vocal in their opposition.

Democratic Senator Chris Murphy told CNN it was "disgusting" while Republican Senator Thom Tillis said public executions were what "oppressive dictators" did.

"It should not be happening in America," he added in a post on X., external

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