(Adds details of shooting, bond, etc.)
Feb 3 (Reuters) – A man accused of gunning down former U.S.
Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, a prominent military sniper, and another
man at a Texas shooting range has been arraigned on three counts
of murder, Texas officials said on Sunday.
Eddie Ray Routh, 25, is accused of killing Kyle, 38, and
35-year-old Chad Littlefield, Kyle’s neighbor, with a
semiautomatic pistol on Saturday afternoon at the Rough Creek
Lodge, about
50 miles (80 km) southwest of Fort Worth, the Texas Department
of Public Safety said.
“They were shot at close range,” department spokesman
Sergeant Lonny Haschel said.
Kyle was considered one of America’s deadliest snipers. He
killed 160 people during his career as a U.S. Navy SEAL sniper
and wrote the book “American Sniper” about his military service
from 1999 to 2009.
Routh faces one count of capital murder and two counts of
murder, officials said. In Texas, a murder committed in the
commission of another felony, such as robbery, can be considered
capital murder. A person convicted of capital murder in Texas
can be sentenced to death.
Routh, described in local media reports as a former Marine
who suffered from post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD), was
arrested near his Lancaster, Texas, home about 8:30 p.m.,
several hours after the shooting, in Kyle’s truck.
“He was taken into custody after a brief pursuit,” Haschel
said.
According to a posting on a website run by members of the
Special Operations Forces, Kyle had been volunteering his time
to help Marine Corps veterans suffering from PTSD.
“Part of this process involved taking these veterans to the
range,” the posting on SOFREP.com said.
Officials said it has not been officially determined whether
Routh suffered from PTSD, and they declined to confirm reports
he had fought in Iraq.
“We’ve seen no medical records yet,” Erath County Sheriff’s
Captain Jason Upshaw said.
Authorities declined to discuss details of the relationship
between Routh and the victims, but said they knew each other.
The three had driven to the lodge’s shooting range together,
authorities said.
After the shooting, Routh left in Kyle’s truck and drove to
his sister’s house, where he told her what happened, Haschel
said. After he left in the truck to go home, she called police,
he said.
Employees found the victims’ bodies during a routine check
of the shooting range, so an autopsy will be used to determine
the time of death, Upshaw said.
Kyle served four combat tours of duty in Iraq and elsewhere,
and he won two Silver Stars and five Bronze Stars for bravery,
according to his book.
“It just comes as a shock and it’s staggering to think that
after all Chris has been through, that this is how he meets his
end, because there are so many ways he could have been killed”
in Iraq, Scott McEwen, who wrote the book with Kyle, told
Reuters.
After leaving the Navy, Kyle founded Craft International, a
firm that provided combat and weapons training to military,
police, corporate and civilian clients.
Kyle is the co-author of another book, “American Gun – A
History of the U.S. in Ten Firearms,” which will be published in
May.
Upshaw said Kyle, who helped design the lodge’s shooting
range, called ahead to let staff know the group would be there
on Saturday, Upshaw said.
Rough Creek Lodge is an upscale retreat that offers
horseback riding, fishing, golf, shooting sports and other
outdoor activities.
In the wake of the slayings of 20 children and six adults at
a school in Newtown, Connecticut in December, Kyle was
interviewed in January about rising calls for curbing U.S. gun
violence. He told the website guns.com he favored arming
teachers who have been screened and trained and spoke against
restrictions on gun owners.
(Reporting by Barbara Goldberg; Writing by Karen Brooks;
Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst, Will Dunham and Stacey Joyce)
