GLEN ROSE, Texas -- Texas authorities say a man has been charged with murder in the deaths of former Navy SEAL and author Chris Kyle and another man at a Texas gun range.
Sgt. Lonny Haschel with Texas Department of Public Safety said in a news release Sunday that 25-year-old Eddie Ray Routh of Lancaster was arraigned Saturday on two counts of capital murder.
Haschel said Erath County deputies responded to a shooting at the Rough Creek Lodge at about 5:30 p.m. Saturday and found the bodies of 38-year-old Chris Kyle and 35-year-old Chad Littlefield.
Police said they believe Routh shot the two men at about 3:30 p.m. and fled. Routh was found at about 8 p.m. Saturday at his residence in Lancaster, police said.
Erath County Sheriff Tommy Bryant said Kyle, 38, and a second man were found dead at Rough Creek Lodge's shooting range west of Glen Rose, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and Stephenville Empire-Tribune. Glen Rose is about 50 miles southwest of Fort Worth.
Bryant did not immediately return phone calls to The Associated Press seeking comment late Saturday and early Sunday. A woman who answered the phone at the lodge where the shooting occurred declined comment and referred calls to the sheriff's office.
Investigators did not immediately release the name of the second victim, according to the newspapers.
Witnesses told sheriff's investigators that a gunman opened fire on the men around 3:30 p.m. Saturday, then fled in a pickup truck belonging to one of the victims, according to the Star-Telegram. The newspapers said a 25-year-old man was later taken into custody in Lancaster, southeast of Dallas, and that charges were expected.
Lancaster police did not immediately return calls for comment.
The motive for the shooting was unclear.
Kyle wrote the best-selling book, "American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History," detailing his 150-plus kills of insurgents from 1999 to 2009.
Kyle was sued by former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura over a portion of the book that claims Kyle punched Ventura in a 2006 bar fight over unpatriotic remarks. Ventura says the punch never happened and that the claim by Kyle defamed him.
Kyle had asked that Ventura's claims of invasion of privacy and "unjust enrichment" be dismissed, saying there was no legal basis for them. But a federal judge said the lawsuit should proceed. Both sides were told to be ready for trial by Aug. 1.
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