"American Sniper" Chris Kyle shot dead at shooting range

Started by Syt, February 03, 2013, 02:28:20 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Syt

http://abcnews.go.com/US/navy-seal-chris-kyle-killed-gun-range-marine/story?id=18389238

QuoteFormer Navy SEAL Chris Kyle Killed at Gun Range; Former Marine Charged

A former Marine has been charged with three counts of murder in the killing of former Navy SEAL and "American Sniper" author Chris Kyle, the most deadly sniper in U.S. history, and another man at an Erath County, Texas, gun range, police said.

"We have lost more than we can replace. Chris was a patriot, a great father, and a true supporter of this country and its ideals. This is a tragedy for all of us. I send my deepest prayers and thoughts to his wife and two children," Scott McEwen, co-author of "American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History," said in a statement to ABC News.

Remembering Kyle for the number of Iraqi insurgents he killed misstates his legacy, McEwen said.

"His legacy is not one of being the most lethal sniper in United States history," McEwen said. In my opinion, his legacy is one of saving lives in a very difficult situation where Americans where going to be killed if he was not able to do his job."

Kyle and a neighbor of his were shot at a gun range in Glen Rose while helping a former Marine who was recovering from post traumatic stress syndrome, ABC affiliate WFAA-TV in Dallas reported.

The suspect, identified as Eddie Ray Routh, 25, was arrested in Lancaster, Texas, after a brief police chase, a Lancaster Police Department dispatcher told ABC News. Routh was driving Kyle's truck at the time of his arrest, police said.

Routh was arraigned Saturday evening on one count of capital murder and two counts of murder. He was brought to the Erath County Jail this morning and was being held there today on a combined $3 million bond, Officer Kyle Roberts said.

Investigators told WFAA that Routh is a former Marine said to suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome.

Kyle helped found a nonprofit that provides at-home fitness equipment for emotionally and physically wounded veterans, but the director of the foundation said Kyle and Routh had not met through the organization.

"Chris was literally the type of guy if you were a veteran and needed help he'd help you," Travis Cox, the director of FITCO Cares, told The Associated Press. "And from my understanding that's what happened here. I don't know how he came in contact with this gentleman, but I do know that it was not through the foundation."

Authorities identified the other man who was killed with Kyle as 35-year-old Chad Littlefield, who Cox said was Kyle's neighbor and friend.

Kyle, 38, served four tours in Iraq and was awarded two Silver Stars, five Bronze Stars with Valor, two Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals, and one Navy and Marine Corps Commendation.

From 1999 to 2009, Kyle recorded more than 150 sniper kills, the most in U.S. military history.

After leaving combat duty, Kyle became chief instructor training Naval Special Warfare Sniper and Counter-Sniper teams, and he authored the Naval Special Warfare Sniper Doctrine, the first Navy SEAL sniper manual. He left the Navy in 2009.

"American Sniper," which was published last year by William Morrow, became a New York Times best seller.

"We are devastated by the news of Chris Kyle's death," William Morrow executive editor Peter Hubbard said in a statement. "It was an incomparable honor to help share Chris's story of service and faith with the world. Chris was a hero as much on the home front as on the battlefield -- a man who dedicated his life in recent years to supporting veterans and donated the proceeds of American Sniper to the families of his fallen friends. He deserves our deepest respect. Our prayers are with his family and the entire military community. He will never be forgotten."

Kyle was also an advocate for his fellow service members suffering from PTSD, creating a foundation to help with their treatment.

In an interview on Guns.com, he discussed the difficulty troops face coming home from combat zones.

"All of a sudden you don't have no identity," he said "And you have to learn a whole new way to act."

Brandon Webb, a fellow SEAL who knew Kyle from SEAL Team Three then later when Webb was an instructor at the SEAL sniper course, called him a "larger than life Texan" and said he "will go down in history as one of the world's most accomplished military snipers, right next to Carlos Hathcock, and Lyudmila Pavlichenko."

"Chris was very adamant about supporting veterans issues," Webb said. "This was an subject close to his heart, and not many in our community realize how much of his time was spent on veterans' causes. ... Chris will be remembered as a great American Hero, and another friend lost but not forgotten."

Cox said Kyle's wife Taya and their children "lost a dedicated father and husband" and the country has lost a "lifelong patriot and an American hero."

"Chris Kyle was a hero for his courageous efforts protecting our country as a U.S. Navy SEAL during four tours of combat. Moreover, he was a hero for his efforts stateside when he helped develop the FITCO Cares Foundation. What began as a plea for help from Chris looking for in-home fitness equipment for his brothers- and sisters-in-arms struggling with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) became an organization that will carry that torch proudly in his honor," Cox said in a statement.

The fatal shooting comes after week filled with gun-related incidents, as the national debate heats up on what to do about gun violence.

In the past week, a teen who participated in President Obama's inaugural festivities was shot to death in Chicago, a bus driver was fatally shot and a 5-year-old was taken hostage in Alabama, and a Texas prosecutor was gunned down outside a courthouse.

Clearly, to avoid such tragedies in future, everyone at a shooting range should be armed.
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
—Stephen Jay Gould

Proud owner of 42 Zoupa Points.

Martinus

Poetic justice. Karma is a bitch. Dog eat dog. Live by the sword die by the sword. Psychos kill psychos. Film at 11. Etc. Etc.

grumbler

Quote from: Martinus on February 03, 2013, 05:16:31 PM
Poetic justice. Karma is a bitch. Dog eat dog. Live by the sword die by the sword. Psychos kill psychos. Film at 11. Etc. Etc.
:lol:  Well, if that's what you douche bags think, then I guess I am sorry he's dead.  I'd have figured this guy for a self-important jerk if you self-important jerks hadn't so obviously disowned him!
The future is all around us, waiting, in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.   -G'Kar

Bayraktar!

Jaron

Quote from: Martinus on February 03, 2013, 05:16:31 PM
Poetic justice. Karma is a bitch. Dog eat dog. Live by the sword die by the sword. Psychos kill psychos. Film at 11. Etc. Etc.

:huh:
Winner of THE grumbler point.

Ed Anger

Quote from: Jaron on February 03, 2013, 07:17:31 PM
Quote from: Martinus on February 03, 2013, 05:16:31 PM
Poetic justice. Karma is a bitch. Dog eat dog. Live by the sword die by the sword. Psychos kill psychos. Film at 11. Etc. Etc.

:huh:

Mart is just mad Kyle didn't use magic.
Stay Alive...Let the Man Drive

lustindarkness

Grand Duke of Lurkdom

Jaron

Although..is a gun range really the best place to deal with PTSD?
Winner of THE grumbler point.

11B4V

Quote from: Martinus on February 03, 2013, 05:16:31 PM
Poetic justice. Karma is a bitch. Dog eat dog. Live by the sword die by the sword. Psychos kill psychos. Film at 11. Etc. Etc.

Cunt
"there's a long tradition of insulting people we disagree with here, and I'll be damned if I listen to your entreaties otherwise."-OVB

"Obviously not a Berkut-commanded armored column.  They're not all brewing."- CdM

"We've reached one of our phase lines after the firefight and it smells bad—meaning it's a little bit suspicious... Could be an amb—".

CountDeMoney

Quote from: 11B4V on February 03, 2013, 07:29:38 PM
Quote from: Martinus on February 03, 2013, 05:16:31 PM
Poetic justice. Karma is a bitch. Dog eat dog. Live by the sword die by the sword. Psychos kill psychos. Film at 11. Etc. Etc.

Cunt

And yet, he wonders why there's so much violence on fags in the world: because the world reads Marti's posts.

jimmy olsen

It is far better for the truth to tear my flesh to pieces, then for my soul to wander through darkness in eternal damnation.

Jet: So what kind of woman is she? What's Julia like?
Faye: Ordinary. The kind of beautiful, dangerous ordinary that you just can't leave alone.
Jet: I see.
Faye: Like an angel from the underworld. Or a devil from Paradise.
--------------------------------------------
1 Karma Chameleon point

Darth Wagtaros

PDH!

mongers

I'm surprised people fell for Marty's drive-by troll; it was best unreplied to.
"We have it in our power to begin the world over again"

garbon

Quote from: CountDeMoney on February 03, 2013, 07:45:02 PM
Quote from: 11B4V on February 03, 2013, 07:29:38 PM
Quote from: Martinus on February 03, 2013, 05:16:31 PM
Poetic justice. Karma is a bitch. Dog eat dog. Live by the sword die by the sword. Psychos kill psychos. Film at 11. Etc. Etc.

Cunt

And yet, he wonders why there's so much violence on fags in the world: because the world reads Marti's posts.

:yeahright:
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

HVC

Quote from: garbon on February 03, 2013, 08:26:34 PM
Quote from: CountDeMoney on February 03, 2013, 07:45:02 PM
Quote from: 11B4V on February 03, 2013, 07:29:38 PM
Quote from: Martinus on February 03, 2013, 05:16:31 PM
Poetic justice. Karma is a bitch. Dog eat dog. Live by the sword die by the sword. Psychos kill psychos. Film at 11. Etc. Etc.

Cunt

And yet, he wonders why there's so much violence on fags in the world: because the world reads Marti's posts.

:yeahright:
guilt by association :P
Being lazy is bad; unless you still get what you want, then it's called "patience".
Hubris must be punished. Severely.

CountDeMoney

Quote from: garbon on February 03, 2013, 08:26:34 PM
Quote from: CountDeMoney on February 03, 2013, 07:45:02 PM
Quote from: 11B4V on February 03, 2013, 07:29:38 PM
Quote from: Martinus on February 03, 2013, 05:16:31 PM
Poetic justice. Karma is a bitch. Dog eat dog. Live by the sword die by the sword. Psychos kill psychos. Film at 11. Etc. Etc.

Cunt

And yet, he wonders why there's so much violence on fags in the world: because the world reads Marti's posts.

:yeahright:

Well, I certainly wouldn't fuck with you.