Fort Hood shooter execution: North St. Paul soldier’s widow to attend
Ft. Hood widow speaks before shooter's execution
The 2009 Fort Hood shooting took 13 lives, including a solider from Minnesota. His widow spoke with FOX 9's Mike Manzoni ahead of the shooter's execution.
NORTH ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - A widow of the Fort Hood shooting said she plans to travel to Texas to watch the man who killed her husband be executed.
Why she decided to go
Seeking closure:
"I think it’ll finally bring me some kind of closure," said Shoua Her, widow of Pfc. Kham Xiong.
Her said she was initially unsure about traveling to Texas to witness the execution. She said she and the couple's three children – now 17, 19 and 21 – will be there when the military executes former Army psychiatrist Nidal Hassan on Dec. 3.
Why she wants to face Hassan again
What they're saying:
"It is important because I think that I want to see him, I want to face him one last time," she said.
Her said she knows what it feels like to be in the same room with Hassan because she gave a victim impact statement at his court-martial in 2013.
"It was almost overwhelming just to face him," she recalled.
Her supports Hassan's death sentence but does not like the way the military plans to carry it out.
"I think that the firing squad is a little still too inhumane," she said.
She is also glad that the military decided against livestreaming the execution.
What Pfc. Kham Xiong's family still carries
The husband she remembers:
"He was a great guy. Very funny. Loving. Family guy," she recalled.
Xiong, of North St. Paul, was 23 when he was killed. Thirteen people died in the November 2009 mass shooting.
What their children missed:
"My daughter, she’s 21, and I’m sure she’s going to get married soon and she’s not going to have her father-daughter dance," she said. "My boys grew up not having a dad to teach them simple things like fixing cars, going fishing or, you know, sports or things like that, so it definitely impacted our lives a lot."
The Source: FOX 9's Mike Mazoni reported on this story, using an interview with Shoua Her.