STEPHENVILLE, Texas — A 25-year-old Iraq war veteran charged in the killings of former Navy SEAL and American Sniper author Chris Kyle and his friend turned a gun onto the pair while they were at a Texas shooting range, authorities said Sunday.
Eddie Ray Routh of Lancaster was arraigned early Sunday in the deaths of Kyle, 38, and Chad Littlefield, 35, at a shooting range at Rough Creek Lodge, about 50 miles southwest of Fort Worth. He was being held on one charge of capital murder and two charges of murder.
Capt. Jason Upshaw with the Erath County sheriff’s office said Routh used a semiautomatic handgun, which authorities later found at his home. Upshaw said ballistics tests weren’t complete Sunday, but authorities believe it was the gun used in the shootings. Upshaw declined to give any more details about the gun.
Routh has not made any comments indicating what his motive may have been, Upshaw said. Sheriff Tommy Bryant said Routh was unemployed and “may have been suffering from some type of mental illness from being in the military himself.”
Bryant didn’t know whether Routh was on any medication.
The U.S. military confirmed Sunday that Routh was a corporal in the Marines, serving in active duty from 2006-10. He was deployed to Iraq in 2007 and Haiti in 2010. His current duty status is listed as reserve.
Routh is being held in lieu of $3 million bond. Authorities did not know whether Routh had a lawyer.
Kyle, a decorated veteran, wrote the best-selling book, American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History, detailing his 150-plus kills of insurgents from 1999 to 2009. Kyle said in his book that Iraqi insurgents had put a bounty on his head. According to promotional information from book publisher William Morrow, Kyle deployed to Iraq four times.
Bryant said Kyle, Littlefield and Routh went to the shooting range about 3:15 p.m. Saturday. A hunting guide at Rough Creek Lodge came across the bodies of Kyle and Littlefield about 5 p.m. and called 911.
Upshaw said autopsies were still pending and he could not say how many times the men were shot or where on their bodies they were hit.
After the shootings, Routh left the shooting range in Kyle’s black pickup, Bryant said, first going to his sister’s home in Midlothian, where he told her and her husband what he had done. Routh left, Bryant said, and the couple called local police.
Routh arrived at his home in Lancaster, about 17 miles southeast of Dallas, about 8 p.m. Police arrested him after a brief pursuit.
Travis Cox, the director of a nonprofit Kyle helped found, said Kyle and Littlefield had taken Routh to the range. Littlefield was Kyle’s neighbor and “workout buddy,” Cox said.
“What I know is Chris and a gentleman - great guy, I knew him well, Chad Littlefield - took a veteran out shooting who was struggling with [post-traumatic stress syndrome] to try to assist him, try to help him, try to, you know, give him a helping hand,” Cox said.
Kyle’s nonprofit, FITCO Cares, provides at-home fitness equipment for emotionally and physically wounded veterans.
Bryant seemed to confirm that scenario. The sheriff said Routh’s mother “may have reached out to Mr. Kyle to try to help her son.”
“We kind of have an idea that maybe that’s why they were at the range for some type of therapy that Mr. Kyle assists people with,” Bryant said.
Lt. Cmdr. Rorke Denver, who served with Kyle on SEAL Team 3 in Iraq in 2006, called Kyle a champion of the modern battlefield. Denver wasn’t surprised that Kyle would use a shooting range to try to help someone with post-traumatic stress syndrome.
“For us, for warriors, that’s a skill set that has become very familiar, very comfortable for us,” said Denver, a lieutenant commander in a reserve SEAL team. “So I actually see it as kind of a perfect use of Chris’ unique skill set and expertise of which he has very few peers.” Information for this article was contributed by Andale Gross and Erica Hunzinger of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 4 on 02/04/2013