Motive unclear in killing of ace SEAL/Sniper

Despite what your momma told you...Violence does solve problems... - corporate logo

Glen Rose – In the world of total hostility represented by the art of war, there's nothing quite like sniping.

Ask any Marine or special ops hand, and he'll tell you he's going nowhere without the hospital corpsman, plenty of ammo and morphine syrettes, and snipers deployed on both flanks, fore and aft, at a range of not less than 300 yards, minimum.

It's all part of standard Navy and Marine Corps doctrine; it's printed right there in the Scout-Sniper manual.

But when the sniper who holds the record number of confirmed kills at 160 effective hits gets it on a rifle range, of all places, eyebrows go up all over the lot.

And this was not just any Scout-Sniper. 

Chris Kyle was a member of SEAL Team 3 who fought insurgents in the Iraqi Freedom war from 1999 to 2009. Mr. Kyle made one of his confirmed kills from a distance of 2,100 yards when he spied an insurgent readying a rocket propelled grenade launcher in his scope.

He was a certified hero, so he wrote his own biography to keep some unscrupulous dime novelist from taking credit. The book is called “American Sniper.”

There's more.

Logo for Craft International, founded by Chris Kyle

The so-called “rifle range” wasn't just the standard GI issue number. Rough Creek Resort and Conference Center, located at 5165 County Road 2013 in this resort city, is situated on 11,000 acres “nestled in the foothills of the Hill Country.”

There are a number of diversions, including bass and crappie fishing on an 80-acre lake, skeet shooting, golf, four-wheeling through a lot of very scenic country, and – presumably – some hunting.

Did we mention that a CBS Sunday Morning correspondent recently named the resort one of the top 5 places to get married?

Yeah, you got it right. It's a place to go after the hell of war. Mr. Kyle, a native of the area who went to Tarleton State University in Stephenville, did four tours there.

And then someone left he and another man dead on the ground at 5:30 p.m. on a Saturday afternoon amid all this opulent luster.

Authorities have not yet said whether he was shot in the front – or in the back. Nor have they said what kind of firearm the assailant used in the killings.

The upshot is that the People of the State of Texas will seek to prove that ex-Marine Eddie Ray Routh, 25, of Lancaster, committed two counts of capital murder when he left Mr. Kyle and an unnamed second victim dead at the rifle range and booked in Mr. Kyle's Ford F-150 pickup with huge tires and rims and entirely encased in Rhino Liner.

The cops found him at home, and he gave them a brief chase before surrendering, according to Sgt. Lonny Haschel with the Texas Department of Public Safety.

No one has discussed his motives for the attack he is alleged to have committed. But, then, the state will be under no burden of proof as to his motive, or lack of motive. They need only prove he did it, to the exclusion of all other people.

The key points media outlets are hammering on are these:

Mr. Kyle held a record for a number of confirmed kills.

His assailant killed him at a “rifle range.”

At the battle of Ramadi, insurgents nicknamed him "The Devil," and placed a $20,000 price on his head. 

He is the proprietor of a security training company that charges military and law enforcement clients as much as $500 per training session to learn advanced techniques in handling firearms.

Craft International is scheduled to put on a Rough Creek Shoot-Out at $2,950 a head charged to train civilians on the uses of pistols, shotguns, rifles and an optional instruction module in firing machine guns in April. 

His corporate logo, the skull outline of the Marvel Comics action hero called “The Punisher,” is a fearsome symbol used by many proponents of gun rights.

Good luck, shipmate. We will miss you at the radar station.

- The Legendary