E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSChris Kyle survived several tours of duty in Iraq, becoming the military's most deadly sniper, only to be shot and killed at a Glen Rose, Tex., shooting range over the weekend along with friend Chad Littlefield. Police have arrested a suspect, Eddie Lee Routh, a former Marine. NBC's Lester Holt reports.
The former top Navy SEAL sniper who authorities say was killed at a Texas shooting range was devoted to maintaining camaraderie and helping his fellow veterans find their way after leaving active duty.
Chris Kyle, author of the best-selling book "American Sniper," and his friend Chad Littlefield apparently were doing just that Saturday when, officials say, they were shot and killed by former Marine Eddie Ray Routh.
Kyle, 38, had left the Navy in 2009 after four tours of duty in Iraq, where he earned a reputation as one of the military's most lethal snipers. But he quickly found a way to maintain contact with his fellow veterans and pass on what had helped him work through his own struggles. By late 2011, he filed the paperwork to establish the nonprofit FITCO Cares, which received its nonprofit status the following spring, said FITCO director Travis Cox.
"Chris struggled with some things," Cox said. "He'd been through a lot and he handled it with grace, but yeah he did struggle with some things. And he found a healthy outlet and was proactive in his approach to deal with those issues and wanted to help spread his healing, what worked for him, to others. And that's what he died doing."
For Kyle that healthy outlet was exercise. At the heart of FITCO was giving in-home fitness equipment to physically and emotionally wounded veterans, as well as families who had lost a veteran, Cox said.
Littlefield, a 35-year-old friend and neighbor, was Kyle's "workout buddy," and also volunteered his time to work with veterans, Cox said. He was married and had children as well.
"He's a very gentle, sweet-hearted man, just a great man, kind of quiet," Cox said of Littlefield. "He just really cared. ... He wanted to do whatever he could to help veterans and help see that vision of serving others that Chris had. He shared that vision with all of us. He was a great man."
Cox said he understood that Kyle and Littlefield were helping Routh work through his own PTSD, but that he did not know how they came into contact. He said it was not a FITCO session.
Erath County Sheriff Tommy Bryant on Sunday offered a similar description of the situation.
"It's my understanding that the suspect may have been suffering from some type of mental illness from being in the military himself," he said of Routh.
He said Routh's mother may have reached out to Kyle for help with 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.
A Marine allegedly turned his gun on two friends – including Chris Kyle, a celebrated Navy SEAL – at a gun range on Saturday. NBC's Lester Holt reports.
Bryant didn't know whether Routh was on any medication or whether he had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Authorities say the three men arrived at the Rough Creek Lodge southwest of Fort Worth around 3:15 p.m. Saturday. A hunting guide discovered the bodies of Kyle and Littlefield around 5 p.m. and called 911.
Routh allegedly left in Kyle's pickup and went to his sister's in Midlothian. He told what he had done and left. She called police and Routh was eventually found at his home in Lancaster. After a short pursuit he was arrested.
Routh was being held on $3 million bail in the Erath County Jail. Authorities said they believed he had requested a court-appointed attorney. Calls to his home were not answered Sunday.
Kyle was also president of a security training firm Craft International. Craft 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."
But the work with veterans through FITCO was Kyle's passion, Cox said.
FITCO Cares offered life coaching for veterans, a daily support group and weekly group counseling. Sometimes veterans in other states would video conference in to counseling sessions, Cox said.
Kyle was always recognized at events, but would deflect attention to other veterans, quickly introducing and praising those around him.
"That camaraderie is usually missed once the veteran gets out of the military," said Cox, himself a former Marine sniper. "The authentic relationships that you develop in the military, especially overseas and in combat are some of the most meaningful, authentic relationships that one can have and it's missed. And so we tried to create a means through this group of veterans that can gather and talk about things that they're dealing with."
"He (Kyle) didn't have any fear at all as far as working with an extreme case," Cox said. "Just like in combat he would take it on head on and do whatever he could to give these guys assistance. There was no fear in helping anyone that may have an extreme case. He was willing to help anyone in need."
Leave a Comment:
Ronald Hussein, Tell me idiot, how many times have you put a weapon down and then it got up on its own and shot someone. Banning guns is not the problem, people that are ill or evil will kill with what ever is available. It's the decay of society and mental illness that is the problem, not the weapon.
"Tell me idiot" , now you are showing you're all grown up!
Routh was paid by Radical Muslims to shot Chris Kyle.
Ironically, what Islamic terrorists couldn't accomplish overseas was no problem within our own borders, thanks to America's easy gun policies. Despite this, the NRA is still arguing against background checks and vetting the mental health of potential gun buyers. Normal people don't go on shooting sprees, do they? I guess the NRA wants us to keep rolling the dice whenever anyone acquires a gun.
I'm sorry MSNBC...is the gun now a suspect? Will it be tried in court?
The rest of the world is laughing at the United States. Gun violence has become one big joke. We've become the country that we seek to defeat.
Having traveled to many parts of the world and seeing their problems I say let them laugh.
There are plenty of places for you to move to, why stay here?
What a fine human being Kyle was. Many thoughts and prayers for the families of all affected. Enlisted or civilian, we should all pay our respect and honor this man's commitment to duty and country.
I can only hope that some folks with Kyle's unique skillset guard his funeral from the monsters at Westboro Baptist.
Sincere condolences to the Kyle and Littlefield families.
Two men doing the best they could to help others suffering the ravages of war.
Rest in peace.
By taking a sufferer of PTSD to a shooting range??
Exactly how would you treat vertigo, hanging a sufferer from the top of a skyscraper??
WoR....
I have to admit the choice of venue was questionable. However, neither you nor I know the prior experience either of the murdered had with the perpetrator. Range time might well have been lethargic for the person.
And I DO know someone, a cousin actually, that learned how to cope with vertigo by doing of all things, hang gliding. Personally, that's not something I would look forward to experiencing.
If they had better mental health screenings and actually did something for soldiers leaving the military who have mental issues,it might cut down on less deaths from these disturbed vets.
Of course mental health screenings for potential gun owners might eliminate some gun purchases,and the NRA could never have that. Gun sales are all that matters to them these days. The Decent NRA is long gone.
True, could eventually prevent legal purchase of a gun. How many illegal guns are out there and available for purchase by anyone with money?? Outlaws and killers are not going to abide by the laws anyway. It's people, not guns, that kill others. This is hardly the fault of the NRA.
well fine you define the issue and the answer and the intelligence of any disagreement and that is what liberal sanity or insanity? right thank you for making my point.
my response to williamofrights
Your response is as coherent as your capitalization and sentence structure are correct.
sir you could be a candidate for office as a democrat-the issues are the economy, deficit etc etc your response typical-discuss anything but the issues just yada yada but nothing of substance.
3 mill for bail? Now there is a number for the masses to fill safer. Seems this fellow would have trouble with bail if it was $30,000.00! Notice the haters from both sides use death for their own agenda?
It has always amazed me that organizations like Wounded Warrior's are needed by this country's returning hero's. Just maybe if those in office were as concerned with the needs of our returning hero's as they are with their own personal agenda's, tragedies like this would not happen.
Those in office have no shame as proven by their political rhetoric of how much they love, and respect those who serve our country every time they're in front of a news camera with our flag in the background, and leave private organizations to pick up the slack in their failures to fund programs that are desperately needed by those they send into harms way!
The next time you read an article about some ridiculous study our tax dollars are funding, or story on government waste. Ask yourself why that money is not being used to help fund programs needed by our returning hero's?
If anyone ever needed an effective lobbying organization, it's our vets!
Talk about government waste. The Iraq war is a war that should have NEVER happened.
Amen, William.
Did Chris Kyle start the Iraq war?
Did any of the servicemen and women you despise start the war in Iraq?
You are demonstrating the methods of your loser forefathers fromt he 1960's. Spitting on soldiers for a war you hate and blaming them for doing what the idiots you elected asked them too.
If only the Coopster family had gotten a few more abortions,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Eddie LEE Routh?
I thought it was Ray Routh?
This happened in Texas. I thought it was Billy Bob Routh.
William of Rights- Are you still spouting that nonsense about the war on woman, you do know that was a lie when it was first told, yet you keep saying it. As dishonest as you are, you must work for newsvine. Get a grip on reality, almost all republicans love woman.
Republican men love their women as an accessory not as an equal.
When I research the reality about the Republican-dominated Congress, I’m chillingly reminded of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 43 – in reverse:
“How do you hate me? Let me count the ways…”
The Republicans have voted to (1) strip women of access to preventive health care and contraception, (2) eliminate federal funds for reproductive and maternal care services, (3) cut funds for nutrition programs for pregnant women, nursing mothers and families; they have also voted (4) to allow insurers to discriminate against women and charge them more than men for health insurance policies, (5) to end the basic guarantees that Medicare and Medicaid provide to low-income women and women who are seniors, (6) to increase the exposure of pregnant women and women of childbearing age to dangerous toxic chemicals, (7) to restrict women’s access to legal abortions, and (8) against passing, improving and funding important programs like the Violence Against Women Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act.
The public record shows that the 112th Congress has averaged one anti-women vote for every week it’s been in session since the Republicans took control in January 2011. Those 55 votes against women (and children) break down like this:
• Seventeen votes allow health insurance companies to (1) discriminate by charging women higher premiums than men and (2) deny women coverage based on “pre-existing conditions” like being pregnant (yes, pregnancy can be a pre-existing condition).
• Eleven votes cut women’s access to preventive care. This includes votes to repeal Affordable Care Act provisions that provide free, preventive care for women, as well as votes to eliminate the Prevention and Public Health Fund that supports breastfeeding and immunizations, and which was previously budgeted to pay for breast and cervical cancer screenings for hundreds of thousands of women in 2013 and beyond.
• Ten votes restrict or roll back abortion rights or access to legal abortion; this includes votes to ban the use of federal funds to train medical students in the provision of abortions. There were also votes to allow hospitals to deny emergency abortions to women whose lives are in jeopardy (yes, let’s repeat that – to women whose lives are in jeopardy).
• Seven votes cut funding for key nutrition programs for women, infants and children, such as cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children that provides nutrition, food counseling and support for more than nine million low-income pregnant women, new mothers and infants each month.
• Six votes were against protections for women from violence and discrimination; this includes votes against protecting the confidentiality of domestic violence victims and votes to oppose additional funding for grants under the Violence Against Women Act. It also chillingly includes votes to place new restrictions on the citizenship rights of legal, foreign-born women who are victims of domestic violence (yes, women who are legally citizens but who were born elsewhere).
• Three votes were to block access to reproductive and maternal care services, including votes for a budget that prohibits funding of Planned Parenthood and eliminates funding for the Title X Family Planning Program, which provides family planning services for millions of low-income women every year.
• Three votes were taken to undermine Medicare and Medicaid programs, including votes to end the basic Medicare guarantee and votes to turn Medicaid into a block grant, slash $800 billion in existing federal support for state Medicaid programs, and repeal $640 billion of new Medicaid funding from the Affordable Care Act over the next 10 years.
• Fourteen votes weakened environmental laws protecting pregnant women, including votes to block EPA regulations to protect pregnant women and women of childbearing age from exposure to mercury, a potent neurotoxin that poses particular risks to the brain and nervous system of unborn children. Although the new religious totem for the Republicans is the fetus, the love affair stops once the child is born, so obviously children with brain damage are not a priority.
I didn’t have to do any deep and difficult research to gather together this information. You can verify my facts; I’ve taken them directly from a report prepared by Democratic Congressmen and -women Henry A. Waxman, Frank Pallone Jr., Anna G. Eshoo, Diana DeGette, Lois Capps, Jan Schakowsky, Tammy Baldwin, Doris O. Matsui, Donna Christensen and Kathy Castor. I’ve also cross-checked these facts against the Congressional Record.
You can read detailed specifics (and I would encourage you to do so) about each bill the Republicans either sponsored or derailed at http://democrats.energycommerce.house.gov/sites/default/files/documents/House%20Anti-Women%20Votes%20Report%209.5.12_0.pdf.
Read it and weep.
— Maureen McDermott Gill is a historian, educator, public speaker and novelist; a native Chicagoan, she now resides in southern Maine. Gill is also a contributing columnist at LGBTQNation.com. Contact her at windycityauthor@gmail.com orwww.maureengill.net and follow her on Twitter @windycityauthor.
sir you cut and paste well and you obviously think you are smart. i suggest you have that half right. a cut in washington speak is a decrease in out year increases not a cut in spending. the problem is those that fall for that cut distortion end up electing people that have no answers for the economy, deficit, debt, entitlement solvency etc etc in fact other than lip service they would rather distort and direct attention to anything but those issues.
Well tom, if the GOP spent as much time with economy issues as they do with anti-women votes we would have come out of the Recession years ago.
Lucky for us, Democrat men,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,love their men. In a few generations all will be right in the world. Unless science invents the butthole baby.
It's Not about Guns, it's about RIGHTS.
Do you people at NBC not proof read. Please look at caption of final picture. Really.....
A Marine allegedly turned his gun on two friends – including Chris Kyle, a celebrated Navy SEAL – at a gun range on Saturday. NBC's Lester Holt reports.
It would appear Mr. Routh jumped the gun.
sir you need to check yourself.
505 murdered out of 2.8 million citizens in Chicago. Bad but not the worst in the world.
This navy seal alone killed 150+
By Comparison the population of Belfast Ireland is 1.7 million and the murder rate is as follows:
The number of murders and other killings recorded by police fell to its lowest level in almost 30 years last year, figures have shown a total of 550 murders and cases of manslaughter and infanticide were recorded in 2011/12 - the lowest since 1983.
Source: belfasttelegraph.co.u k
Racial makeup of Ireland
Irish 87.4%, other white 7.5%, Asian 1.3%, black 1.1%, mixed 1.1%, unspecified 1.6% (2011 census)
94.9% white. You would expect this type of behavior. They love guns.
In Belfast, you may spend half of your time dodging bullets. And the s k i n h e a d s are a known fixture there...as well as their assault weapons
Where there are abundance of white people, there is an abundance of destruction.
so we should ban white people?? get a clue.
Not too racist there are you Loser-nc-2418660
Chicago,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,murders are 75.3% Black and 18.9% Hispanic. 76.9% have prior criminal records.
Murderers are 70.5% black and 24.3% Hispanic. 87.3% HAVE A PRIOR CRIMINAL HISTORY!!!!!
****Whites commit 3.5% of all murders in Chicago and are victims only 4.6% of the time.****
The problem is that the average democrat is trying to IGNORE FACTS and make crime fit into a model BASED ON SKIN COLOR instead of criminal record.
That and democrats are idiots for the most part.
I'd post the link, by leftists won't click it anyway. They are far to racist.
Unfortunately with more and more soldiers leaving the service with mental health issues,more incidents like this will happen. Today it seems like there are far more people who have access to weapons who have severe mental and anger issues . So having more guns available makes matters worse. Much better mental health screening is needed. But then again the gun nuts who literally intemperate the 2nd amendment so it fits their agenda,would say: you can't deny ANYONE their 2nd amendment rights. So all the mentally ill should have the right to own any weapon they please,because in the world of the gun nut,no restrictions on any weapon or ownership is ever permissionable.
Much like the 1st Amendment permits you to spout irrational vitriolic diatribes.
And you yours...
Who has been "intemperating" the 2nd? Let's have names!
The murderer of this brave vet had to have mental health issues,and he could be he thought if he took out the war hero he would be the "ultimate" Rambo?
When he lies dying, I wonder if the first thing that came into his mind was his wife and kids and the wife and kids that he left alone in Iraq after killing the men of the households.
It’s the damndest thing killing a man. You take away everything that he has and everything that he could have had.
150+ kills. This guy’s life was bound to be short.
Live by the sword, you die by the sword..
Ever wondered if those terrorists worry about the wives and children of the dead from 9/11?
Do you think when they are chopping the heads off Sunni muslims they worry about fatherless children?
When they bomb a day care or bus full of innocent people, do terrorists have pause?
Do you know the difference between a decent human being and a democrat? It is easy, a decent human being worries about those who serve our nation, innocent victims of crime and terror.
A democrat worries about criminals, illegals and terrorists. A democrat is more concerned for the rights of those killing Americans than for the rights of the average American. When a woman is raped, the democrat praises the rapist and spurns the victim. At the movies, the democrat cheers for the villain and curses the victims of the awful man.
If only your mothers had bought abortions, the world would be so much better.
Killing doesn't make one a hero and war doesn't make one great.
This guy killed 150+ soldiers from a Sovereign country that weren't terrorist and no threat to Americans. Thanks to Bush Jr.
Now if he was in Afghanistan (home of the real terrorist of 9/11), this would be a true story of heroism.
headline: Ex-Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle died taking a man with mental issues to a gunrange
Rather ironic. This (along with Adam Lanza, and to a lesser degree Nehemiah Griego) shows it might not be a good idea to give a mentally ill person a gun, show them how to shoot, and (figuratively or literally) turn your back on them. It seems guns and shooting can be dangerous even for a gun enthusiast/fundamentalist.
RIP to an American hero who risked everything to serve his country and his fellow service members.