No good deed goes unpunished
Taking an ex-Marine suffering from PTSD to a gun range turned out to be a tragic mistake.
EX-SEAL SNIPER SHOT DEAD AT TEXAS GUN RANGE
Chris Kyle wrote the best-selling book ‘American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Snip0er in U.S. Military History’
By Larry Copeland,
USA TODAY
February 3, 2013
Ex-Navy SEAL and author Chris Kyle, who was killed Saturday along with another man at a Texas gun range, was "an incredible guy who was always about family, about country and about God," his co-author said Sunday.
"During his life, he struggled to get those into the proper order," said Jim DeFelice, 56, of Warwick, N.Y., one of the co-authors of Kyle's best-selling book, American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History, which details Kyle's kills of 150-plus insurgents from 1999 to 2009.
"It was always God first, but he struggled sometimes with how to balance his responsibility to his country with his responsibility to his family," DeFelice said.
Kyle, 38, and Chad Littlefield, 35, were shot and killed at the Rough Creek Lodge, west of Glen Rose, Texas, about 50 miles southwest of Fort Worth, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Police arrested Eddie Ray Routh, 25, of Lancaster, and he was arraigned Saturday evening on two counts of capital murder, according to Sgt. Lonny Haschel of the Texas Department of Public Safety. Routh is being held in the Erath County Jail under a $3 million bond.
Police said Routh fired on Kyle and Littlefield around 3:30 p.m. Saturday, then fled in a Ford pickup. At around 8 p.m., Routh arrived at his home in Lancaster, about 17 miles southeast of Dallas. Police arrested him after a brief pursuit.
The motive for the shooting was unclear.
Travis Cox, director of FITCO Cares, a non-profit group Kyle helped start to help fellow veterans, told the Associated Press that the former sniper and Littlefield had taken Routh to the range trying to help a veteran "who was struggling with PTSD to try to assist him, try to help him out, try to, you know, give him a helping hand and he turned the gun on both of them, killing them."
Cox, who said he was not aware of a possible motive for the "tragic, senseless crime," said Kyle is survived by his wife and two children.
Beginning Jan. 12, 2012, American Sniper spent 27 weeks on the USA TODAY Best-Selling Books list, rising as high as No. 10.
1 comment:
In retrospect, it was clearly a bad idea. I find it hard to fault the guy for trying hard to help a former comrade in need of help. Sometimes, despite the best intentions, things turn to crap.
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