Eddie Ray Routh was crying, shirtless, shoeless and smelling of alcohol when police caught up with him walking the streets of his hometown of Lancaster, Texas.
His family didn’t understand what he — a Marine veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder — was going through, he told the officer last September 2, according to a police report.
He had a simple message that was as much a plea as it was a complaint: I’m hurting.
That visit — which came after Routh, angry that his father was going to sell his gun, left the house and threatened, his mother told police, to “blow his brains out” — prompted him to be placed in protective custody and sent to Dallas’ Green Oaks Hospital for a mental evaluation.
Six months later, the 25-year-old Routh is in custody once again — this time in a central Texas jail, facing murder charges in the deaths of America’s self-proclaimed most deadly military sniper ever as well as the sniper’s friend.
He is on a suicide watch and under 24-hour camera surveillance, Erath County Sheriff Tommy Bryant said Monday.
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“Chris, thank you for your service; not only to the country you loved, but also to your fellow warriors that needed a helping hand,” one woman wrote. “Rest in peace brave hero, patriot and warrior. You are missed.”
The Facebook page also included a tribute to Littlefield, who the page’s administrator wrote “felt deeply about the values of family, compassion, friendship and loyalty, and was equally as passionate about his love of God and country.”
“Chad, thank you for your love for your country, the dedication to your country and your love for life,” a woman said. “God has brought another angel home.”
Chris Kyle, America’s deadliest sniper
CNN’s Ed Lavandera, Josh Levs, Susan Candiotti, AnneClaire Stapleton, Barbara Starr, Emily Smith and Nick Valencia contributed to this report.
