Navy SEAL Who Wrote American Sniper Murdered at Charity Event in Texas
An article at the Daily Caller has more early details regarding Kyle’s death:
Kyle, a former Navy SEAL sniper and author of the best-seller “American Sniper,” and a friend were found dead at the Rough Creek Lodge shooting range. According to WWFA-TV in Dallas, “Kyle was shot point-blank while helping another soldier who is recovering from post traumatic stress syndrome.”
* * * * * *
Jack Murphy at the Special Operations Forces Situation Report (SOFREP) published a post regarding the tragic murders on Saturday night, reading in part: “Chris had been volunteering his time to help Marine Corps veterans suffering from PTSD and mentoring them. Part of this process involved taking these veterans to the range where one of them snapped and killed Chris and his neighbor for reasons that remain unknown at this time. The perpetrator then stole Chris’ vehicle in an attempt to escape but we have received word that the police have arrested him.”
The Daily Caller adds that Kyle is survived by his wife and two children.
I have a very minor bit of a six degrees of separation connection regarding the location where Kyle was murdered, as Rough Creek Lodge in Glen Rose, Texas, about a two hour drive from Dallas, is the swanky upscale hunting lodge where my wife and I have vacationed once a year or so since 2004. (We were there for a couple of nights just before this past Christmas, in fact.) I even made a video about Rough Creek back in 2007, when I was still getting my Internet video chops together.
SooperMexican notes that the suspect had been reportedly arrested last month for DWI. But clearly he had planned to be at the event, given how far off the main road Rough Creek is located, and then how long of a drive it is from its entry road (County Road #2013) to the parking lot and main facilities compound.
In any case, as SooperMexican writes, “Whatever happened, may he rest in peace, and his murderer is caught quickly and prosecuted to the furthest extent of the law.”
Related: Journalist and political consultant David Forsmark reviewed Kyle’s autobiography for PJM a year ago, and wrote at the time that it “may not be the best war memoir ever written, but it might be the most unapologetic since George S. Patton’s War as I Knew It.” Looking back today retrospect, that’s an unfortunate bit of synchronicity with another proud American warrior senselessly killed long before his time.
The Blaze features 10 of the best quotes from Kyle’s book.
Sad.
And, unfortunately, left/libtards not wanting to let a crisis go to waste are torn between whether to call for banning guns or veterans “for the children” this time.
Tragedy on so many levels.
With all due respect to SOFREP’s Murphy, “…where one of them snapped…” shows a basic flaw in how most people misunderstand PTSD.
A memory trauma trigger is what we avoid, or use cognitive techniques to over-ride before the symptoms wreak their havoc.
Coincidentally, NCIS had a two part “Shell Shock” about PTSD. It was about combat PTSD, but the two goals stated apply to all of us (my PTSD is not military combat related):
1) Rediscover sense of purpose, and
2) rebuild trust.
I make no judgment as to why this happened.
Just that PTSD is real, and almost no one without it can understand it. Even the most well meaning still think there is a magic pill to make the symptoms go away. I chose self-isolation, and that is almost as bad.
During his 10-year career as a member of SEAL Team 3, Kyle, 37, saw action in every major battle during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
If I had the time, money and resources I would investigate just how many Seal team members have been murdered or died of mysterious or unusual causes including some 30 in a curious helicopter crash in Afghanistan after the death of the ben laden double.
It’s a lot I guarantee.
Hmmmm…investigate whether there is an unusual number of untimely deaths among a group of adrenaline-seekers.
No disrespect intended, but I’d take a scientific guess that the answer is YES.
This one in particular is an awful tragedy, and most unexpected.
So sad…I pray that anti-gun advocates do not try to use this tragedy for their political gain. And prayers for those families.
Sadly, if you go to the only the Army Times archives for the past 10 years you will find more soldier-on-soldier homicides than your eyes will ever want to see again. I mention only the Army, as they have by far, the most of the services. Theyre just not reported widely to the mains stream national media outlets.
AS Jesus say to “Get behind me Satan” Peter before he became Saint Peter :Those who take up the sword will perish by the sword”
Think of how many other damaged men returning from war are sleeping with the gun under their pillow-The good news we did not wake up this morning having to hear about the slaughter of more innocent children
Idiots like you are the problem. Take your ignorant tirade to pmsnbc or dailykook scumbag.
It’s my understanding the Daily Kossacks are all for the military these days provided they’re used to kick down doors and kill ‘neo-Confederates’ aka bitter clingers.
While I do not wish to speak ill of the recently dead and someone who was very good at his job in the U.S. military, there is no evidence whatsoever backing up the part of the book “American Sniper” that Kyle decked Jesse Ventura in a SEAL bar in San Diego. None. And the publisher is going to have to end up paying Ventura a hefty settlement and remove that portion from the book at considerable expense considering how many copies are already out there. Whoever put up Kyle to lie about Ventura should be uncovered in the lawsuit and get their butts sued over it.
Sleep soundly while the brave, like Kyle, stand between you and the evil.
Any indication that this might be a case of Sudden Jihad Syndrome (i.e. Nidal Hasan)?
May his name and memory be a blessing
What a waste of a good man.
That is terrible news. RIP to both of them and condolences to their families.
Was it simple to steal his truck? Was there any other motivation?
Tragic and my thoughts to the surviving families.
I fully expect within hours today, you’ll hear many from the Left cheer and consider this some perverted form of poetic justice – probably under the banner of more proof of why gun control is the answer. And you won’t hear a word from them that as I understand it, Mr. Kyle was a decent enough soul that he was personally working to help the perpetrator.
The Paulbots over at Infowars, the commenters at least, are applauding it as poetic justice.
A hero living unselfishly until the very end. RIP.
Damn, this is awful news. Many prayers to CPO Kyle’s family, and to for his peace with Jesus, forever.
Also to the family of the neighbor who was also murdered.
I’m glad they got the killer, and hope that the system deals with him, accordingly. That level of premeditation isn’t “snapped”, it’s just evil.
Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX
“That level of premeditation isn’t “snapped”, it’s just evil”
I agree. My money is on the notion he had some kind of prior-ongoing pissing contest with the neighbor, and shot him and “the guy next to him” because he’s and A**hole, not because of “PTSD”
Sad, indeed.
One question: The article says, “Eddie Ray Routh, an Iraqi war veteran”. Was he really Iraqi? Or was he a veteran of the war in Iraq?
With a name like Eddie Ray Routh, I’m going to assume that he is not of Arabian descent, and that he is a veteran of OIF. Having spent plenty of time in Iraq, myself, that strikes me as a distinctly Caucasian name.
Very sad. At least the government didn’t have time to do it to him. No doubt he was on Big Sister’s “imminent terror threat” short list.
Fox news is reporting that Kyle was entangled in a civil lawsuit with Jesse Ventura. http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/02/03/navy-seal-chris-kyle-fatally-shot-at-texas-shooting-range-report-says/
See you in Fiddler’s Green, brother!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiddler's_Green
I will bet dollars to donuts that the murderer is on psychoactive drugs. The same sort of drugs behind almost every mass shooting of the last couple decades. The same drugs our military doles out like candy to our soldiers.
Very sad. And if the suspect is a veteran with PTSD, I can’t hate him. Just more sadness.
PTSD is a crock of sh*t.
90% of people who have it, dont HAVE it.
90% of those who actually DO, dont get any treatment, because you really dont need any.
Its not a “disorder”.
Its called “experiences”, and it effects the way you look at the world.
Having seen the dirty underbelly of Mankind, you cant put on the smiley faces and pretend the same issues and priorities (Fashion, Media, Politics, social climbing, business loyalties, mild acquaintances, etc) mean anything like they used to. You have “grown up” in a way that cant be un-done, and for the folks back home who cant relate to the world the way YOU DO NOW, its frightening.
The rest of “the world”, the folks still living in the “gilded suburban dream” of white collar business and false politeness (Doctors, Shrinks, Administrators, Teachers, Clergy) are the ones that are F*ucked up and Ignorant, trying to shoe-horn their pet theories and false assumptions into a mold YOU NOW KNOW CANNOT BE MADE TO FIT REALITY.
And your firmness in shelving the all the Bullsh*t and calling a Spade a Spade in the middle of their soft and phony world, upsets and frightens them. So much so, that they have to “explain” it to themselves, so they call it a “disorder”.
They sell this “PTSD” nonsense, when the real problem is their own “LMDE” issues.
LMDE = Lack of Morally Defining Experiences.
Its a Character Flaw that infects the stupid, lazy, pampered, and privileged.
In other words, about 99.7% of the population.
All News media suffer from it LMDE. All Politicians suffer from it to. All Academia, Clergy, civic groups and so on.
LMDE among the General Population is therefore explained away as ‘PTSD” in the VETERAN, because anyone who’s HAD such Morally Defining Experiences is a Changed Man, one who has a hard time looking at the silly, ridiculous, pampered and artificial world the same way again.
You become rigid and inflexible. Right is right, wrong is wrong, period, STFU.
LMDE people have no spine, and when the encounter “groups” who do,
they immediately start looking for an “answer”.
Shut up.
Leave my Scotch and cigar where they are.
Dont TELL me where to put my guns and ammo.
We are not the same.
Get over it.
Becoming adult is something that people can’t get behind, but it’s a problem that well may solve itself. When you turn on and dispose of the best and the bravest, you will be forced to fight with what you have left. Now, THAT will be a reality adjustment and it should be sufficiently ugly for anybody…….
A real American hero killed by a lick spittle AH. In Texas he won’t get the Maj. Hassan treatment, he’ll be fast tracked to the needle.
Rest in Peace Chris, you have seen the end of your wars, we will continue on with ours.
Gob Bless him and his family. May he rest in peace.
This kind of man does not walk the earth often enough. Unlike who hollyweird and who the progs celebrate as heroes, this man truly was a hero.
I can just see the left salivating at this in order to make a point about gun control.
I had just watched his interview at the SHOT convention. He seemed like a hell of a guy. RIP
The anti-gun crowd will get a lot of mileage out of this one. Especially if Routh was a member of the NRA, a distinct possibility. This will be used as an example for years to come, simply because it is so rare.
Question no one is asking; how did the press know that the shooter suffered from PTSD, or is it just assumed that he did? Wouldn’t that information be contained in private medical records, not that quickly available to the local sheriff’s office?
Something just ain’t right here.
My assumption is that with it being a charity event for PTSD sufferers, the press has just assumed that the shooter was a PTSD sufferer. I can understand how they would arrive at that assumption. However, I wouldn’t make same without knowing some more details.
That’s a good question. Also, why would you take someone with PSTD to a shooting event. Wouldn’t that traumatize them more?
It makes for a better story, and after all isn’t that what the “PRESS” is all about?
Breitbarted?
2 hours after the shooting the 911 call came? Happened at “celebrity fundraising event”? No one saw the murder happen and the assailant left in Chris Kyle’s F350 dually pickup?
Chris Kyle was teaching “shooting precision” classed to the non-military…Craft International, Kyle’s security training company, had scheduled a $2,950-per-person civilian training event at Rough Creek Lodge called the “Rough Creek Shoot Out!” for March 1-3. The price included lodging, meals and shooting instruction. Kyle was scheduled to teach the first class, called “precision rifle.”?
Remember this question… Ben Swann, a reporter for Cincinnati’s FOX 19, asked the president, “How do you as president utilize that power [of the presidential kill list] to assassinate … U.S. citizens?”
This is sad tragic news. Chris Kyle’s book is on my Nook and I hadn’t gotten around to reading it. I guess I’ll put down General Boykin’s Never Surrender and read Kyle’s instead.
Like others I too am interested in more details. At one time Chris Kyle had an $80,000 bounty on his head. I hate to see that this turned out to be some Bob Ford like attempt to collect it. I don’t think it is, but that was the first thing to came into my head upon hearing the circumstances. All I know is that American lost one its heroes. My heart goes out to Chris Kyle’s family.
My heartfelt condolences to his family and friends, they are the important ones right now.
Let the left do what the left does best, “let no good crisis or tragedy go to waste”. It does us no good to raise the issue with them in a preemptive manner when they have the MSM propaganda machine firmly in their pockets. Do not play their game.
CPO Kyle: Gone but not forgotten.
We remain.
R.I.P.
From the interview I saw, he prided himself more on being a good husband and father as much as career and shooting abilities.
Thoughts and prayers with family and friends.
I am not a conspiracy theorist, but too many Seals have died in suspicious circumstances lately. I’d be willing to bet this guy didn’t act on his own, if he even did it. Fortunately I’m pretty sure the government can’t get every Texas law enforcement officer, so hopefully the truth will out. RIP.
This killing does not sit well with any kind of logic. The “killer” seems to be a patsy. PSD is a catchall term used by the left for anyone they want to place in a box. Oswald was a patsy in the JFK assassination.
Any patriot is seen by this “government” as a potential threat. Especially one who can operate a precision rifle. Mr. Kyle was a Patriot.
Think about this “murder” outside the box. Three scenarios come to mind that are damn scary here.
And yes I know many murders are illogical. This one deserves some close ‘thought’ friends.
Jerk! Don’t you ever tire of your childish games around here on PJM?
Very Interesting here. keep it up !
“The anti-gun crowd will get a lot of mileage out of this one.”
According to the anti-gun loons only the government is smart enough to decide who should have guns…and the murderer is one of the government’s boys (if the news reports are right). Not much of an argument for gun control.
“government boys” as in American soldier. Whose side are you on?
I guess it’s easier to blow someones head off from half a mile than to counsel them about the emotional/ psychological toll from a few feet.