Former Navy SEAL and "American Sniper" author Chris Kyle was fatally shot

<H1>Deadliest sniper in U.S. military history is 'shot and killed point-blank by veteran suffering from PTSD' at Texas gun range

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• Ex-Navy Seal and New York Times best-selling author Chris Kyle, 39, was reportedly shot along with another man
  
• The suspect, 25-year-old Eddie Ray Routh, is in police custody after he fled the scene in Kyle's car
  
• Kyle is a husband and father of two who served four tours in Iraq and holds the U.S. military record for most sniper kills
  
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By Hayley Peterson

PUBLISHED:01:29 EST, 3 February 2013| UPDATED:02:13 EST, 3 February 2013

A former Navy Seal, expert sniper and best-selling author was reportedly gunned down at a Texas shooting range Saturday by a veteran who is recovering from post-traumatic stress syndrome.

Ex-Navy Seal Chris Kyle, 39, and another man were shot point-blank around 3:30 p.m. at a charity event on behalf of Kyle's security firm at the gun range at Rough Creek Lodge and Resort in Erath County.

The suspect, 25-year-old Eddie Ray Routh, was arrested roughly five hours later in Lancaster, Texas after a police chase. He was driving Kyle's truck at the time of the arrest, police said.




Ex-Navy Seal Chris Kyle, author of 'American Sniper,' and a neighbor of his were shot point-blank by another veteran





Kyle, 39, served four tours in Irag and he was awarded two Silver Stars, five Bronze Stars with Valor, two Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals, and one Navy and Marine Corps Commendation








While in Iraq, Kyle survived being shot twice and he lived through six separate IED explosions as his unit, Charlie company of SEAL Team Three, saw significant combat

Investigators told ABC affiliate WFAA-TV that Routh is a former Marine who was suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome.


Kyle, a husband and father of two, authored the New York Times best-seller 'American Sniper,' which chronicled his four tours in Iraq. The book hit shelves last month.

He recorded more than 150 sniper kills - the most in U.S. military history - between 1999 and 2009.


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More...

• 255 confirmed kills: Meet Navy SEAL Chris Kyle... the deadliest sniper in US history
  

His military awards include two Silver Stars, five Bronze Stars with Valor, two Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals, and one Navy and Marine Corps Commendation.

While in Iraq, Kyle survived being shot twice and he lived through six separate IED explosions as his unit, Charlie company of SEAL Team Three, saw significant combat.


Despite the astonishing number of people he has shot, Kyle has said he never second-guessed himself since the first time he had to pull the trigger on a grenade-wielding woman in Iraq.



Kyle recorded more than 150 sniper kills - the most in U.S. military history - between 1999 and 2009










Kyle, a husband and father of two, authored the New York Times best-seller 'American Sniper,' which chronicled his four tours in Iraq

'It was my duty to shoot the enemy, and I don’t regret it. My regrets are for the people I couldn’t save: Marines, soldiers, buddies. I’m not naive, and I don’t romanticize war,' he told Texas Monthly. 'The worst moments of my life have come as a SEAL. But I can stand before God with a clear conscience about doing my job.'


He left the service in 2009 in order to 'save his marriage' he told his publisher.

After leaving the Navy, he started his own military contracting firm, Craft International, which provides military and law enforcement sniper training, as well as private security and protection.





After leaving the Navy, he started his own military contracting firm, Craft International, which provides military and law enforcement sniper training





This is the Rough Creek Lodge gun range where Kyle was shot


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2272697/Deadliest-sniper-U-S-military-history-Chris-Kyle-shot-killed-point-blank-veteran-suffering-PTSD-Texas-gun-range.html#ixzz2JrBtBkKT
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Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2272697/Deadliest-sniper-U-S-military-history-Chris-Kyle-shot-killed-point-blank-veteran-suffering-PTSD-Texas-gun-range.html#ixzz2JrAxIwMu
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Hard to believe this wasn't posted already and that it really happened. The guy arrested was in jail about 5 minutes from my house until they moved him back to Gandview where this occurred. They are saying my wife said, that the three men were at the gun range and that Chis, and his buddy, were working with another friend that went off on them killing them and then fleeing. They caught the guy in Chris's truck on I35 in Lancaster, again 5 minutes up the road from me. I haven't heard yet what caused the guy they were working with to go off on them yet other than he was suffering from PTSD which IMHO has to be more to the story. Said way for this guy Chris Kyle, his life to end. My first thoughts were, Al-Qaeda finally got him here in the US as they had bounties on his head.

Very sad.

http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_22234453/jesse-ventura-lawsuit-against-ex-navy-seal-will

Jesse Ventura lawsuit against ex-Navy SEAL to proceed, judge says


[email=dhanners@pioneerpress.com?subject=TwinCities.com:]By David Hanners
dhanners@pioneerpress.com[/email]
Posted:

12/20/2012 12:01:00 AM CST
Updated:

12/20/2012 09:10:14 PM CST



Former Gov. Jesse Ventura is shown at a September event at Macalester College. (Pioneer Press file photo: Jean Pieri)


Related

• Jesse Ventura
  
• Author sued by Jesse Ventura slain at Texas shooting range (w/ video)
  
• Did a Navy SEAL slug a Jesse Ventura impostor? Lawyers mix it up in court
  
• Jesse Ventura lawsuit: He and Navy SEAL each claim the other is a liar
  
• Ventura says fellow author just after notoriety
  
• SEALs back comrade's claim that he punched out Jesse Ventura
  

A federal judge has refused to dismiss most of the claims in
Jesse Ventura's defamation suit against an ex-Navy SEAL sniper who says
he punched the former Minnesota governor.


The former sniper, best-selling author Chris Kyle, had asked U.S.
District Judge Richard Kyle (no relation) to throw out Ventura's claims
of invasion of privacy and "unjust enrichment," arguing there was no
legal basis for them. But in a ruling Thursday, Dec. 20, the judge said
the suit should proceed as-is.

In "American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper
in U.S. Military History," Chris Kyle wrote that he decked someone he
called "Scruff Face" for being disrespectful at a California bar in
October 2006.

The book doesn't name Ventura,



Book cover for "American Sniper" by Navy SEAL Chris Kyle. (Courtesy photo) but Kyle has acknowledged in interviews that "Scruff Face" is Ventura.
Ventura -- himself a former member of the Navy's special forces --
says the punch never happened and sued Kyle for defamation, invasion of
privacy and wrongly profiting from the story of the punch.

Kyle's attorneys sought to have the latter two claims thrown out. The judge refused.

The author's "argument depends entirely on his own version of the
facts and ignores Ventura's," the judge wrote in his nine-page order.
"His statements are not protected by the First Amendment if they were
knowingly false and defamatory, as Ventura claims."

Similarly, the judge wrote that he couldn't dismiss the claim of unjust enrichment because "it depends on the truth or falsity





of Kyle's statements, which the court cannot decide at this stage."
The parties have been told to be ready for trial by Aug. 1.

David Hanners can be reached at 612-338-6516 .

May he rest in peace. It was a sad day for me when I heard about Chris being killed here in America while trying to help another soldier. There just are no words. I pray for his family.

Ex-sniper Chris Kyle spoke of legacy days before his death


By Jason Sickles, Yahoo! | The Lookout – 9 hrs ago












Chris Kyle in April, 2012. (Paul Moseley/Fort Worth Star-Telegram via AP)

American war hero Chris Kyle fortuitously spoke of the legacy he wanted to leave just days before being shot dead by a fellow veteran he was mentoring.



“I would love for people to be able to think of me as a guy who stood up for what he believed in and helped make a difference for the vets,” he told the Texan News Service. “You know, somebody who cared so much about them that he wanted them taken care of.”

That mission was tragically cut short on Saturday when Kyle and another man were killed at a gun range in Central Texas. Police said former Marine Eddie Ray Routh, 25, shot the men, who reportedly were spending the day with Routh in an effort to help with his post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Kyle, a former Navy SEAL recognized as the deadliest sniper in U.S. history, authored the 2012 best-selling book "American Sniper." Five days before his own death, he spoke at length to TNS, an independent Web publication produced by students from Tarleton State University, which Kyle once attended. The 26-minute recorded conversation was likely his last media interview.

The heavily decorated veteran had also spoken about the notoriety brought on by the book, including a recent stint on an NBC reality show featuring war veterans and celebrities. Kyle, who had suffered with his own bouts of PTSD, disclosed that he may not have been ready for the rush of activity tied to the book.

“I'm just trying to get back to normal life,” Kyle said.

He noted that when the book first came out, "I wasn’t in a good place yet in my life or in my head. But since then I’ve definitely gotten my head straight and gotten back to where I should be.”

Kyle attributed his recent happiness to spending more time with his family and his work with other veterans. He proudly talked about taking soldiers suffering from physical and emotional scars on deer hunting trips this past winter. “It sucks to be trapped somewhere,” he said of the hospitalized veterans. “You're just out there being one with the guys again, having fun and cutting up. Being in the outdoors, it seems to really progress their healing process. They get along so much faster to where the hospitals have now said, 'Whenever you want ’em, you just take ’em,' because ... they're just on a high for about two or three weeks.”

The work and outings have helped Kyle, too. “There’s definitely still a lot of hurt from losing my guys or the fact that I got out and I felt like it wasn’t my time yet,” he said. "Being able to do this makes me feel like I’m still a part of it and still giving back.”

Kyle had said he was giving all of his proceeds from “American Sniper” to the families of soldiers he couldn’t save in combat. He said he regularly received tearful calls and letters of thanks.

“That means the world to me,” he told Texas News Service.

Kyle’s book is being made into a movie, but he said he was leaving the heavy lifting to the folks in Hollywood.

“I’m trying to get it to where I spend more time at home, because the whole reason I got out was to be with my family,” he said. “I’m just trying to be the me that I am and not all of this other crap. I just want to be the family man, and if somehow I can make the money to get my ranch and get the hell away from everybody else, that would be awesome.”

Asked at the end of the interview if he had anything else to add, Kyle took a deep sigh and said, “I’m tired.”http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/ex-sniper-chris-kyle-spoke-legacy-days-death-185225351.html