The former Navy SEAL and renowned U.S. sniper shot to death at a gun range in Stephenville, Texas, spent many years living in San Diego’s East County, one of his friends told NBC 7 San Diego.
Chris Kyle, 38, and another man were found dead at the shooting range of Rough Creek Lodge Saturday, officials said.
Suspected gunman, Eddie Ray Routh, of Lancaster, Texas, was later arrested in connection with the double fatal shooting. Routh is in the Marine Corps Individual Reserveand is in solitary confinement and suicide watch in Texas.
Kyle was a highly-decorated former Navy SEAL who wrote “American Sniper,” a best-selling book about his career as a marksman in Iraq. He was known as one of the deadliest snipers in U.S. military history.
On Sunday, NBC 7 San Diego reached out to some of Kyle’s local friends. One man said Kyle lived in Alpine for six years while he served in SEAL Team 3 in Coronado.
Kyle’s former next door neighbor said he was good friends with the former SEAL. Their kids grew up together during the time Kyle lived in San Diego.
Dr. Sonya Norman heads the PTSD Consulation program for the San Diego VA. She says, while this sheds light on mental health concerns for veterans, cases of extreme violence are very rare in patients with PTSD.
"The stigma becomes associated with having PTSD that makes it seem like everyone is at such high risk to do something like that and that's just not true," she said.
Norman said many people with PTSD may feel angry or irritable but most are never violent.
"What I see is people who are more kind of worried but really keeping themselves in check and really making sure and there's no evidence that they have been or would be aggressive in their civilian world," she said.
She added that if you do become concerned that someone you're close with may become violent -- especially if they say they might do something -- no measure of prevention is too extreme, even if it means calling the police.
