Thousands mourn slain ex-Navy SEAL sniper
Killer faces murder charges
Friends and family of a slain ex-Navy SEAL sniper gathered Monday at a football stadium in north Texas to say their final goodbyes.
Chris Kyle, America’s self-proclaimed most deadly military sniper, was shot and killed Feb. 2 at a gun range, alongside his friend, Chad Littlefield. Another veteran, Eddie Ray Routh, 25, faces murder charges in their deaths.
“I stand before you a broken woman,” Taya Kyle, Chris Kyle’s widow, told the crowd at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas. “But I am now, and always will be, the wife of a man who was a warrior both on and off the battlefield.”
She wiped away tears and struggled to speak as she remembered her husband, whose casket was draped with the American flag.
“There isn’t enough time to tell you everything you mean to me and everything you taught me. I know you had no idea you were teaching me, but there is something only God and I have known for a long time. God worked through you to make me into the woman I am supposed to be,” she said.
Thousands turned out at the stadium to remember Kyle, author of the best-selling book “American Sniper.”
Kyle learned to shoot on hunting trips with his father. He served four combat tours in Iraq and received two Silver Stars, among other commendations.
While serving as a sniper in Iraq, Kyle wrote he personally had 160 confirmed kills from a distance of up to 2,100 feet—more than any other U.S. serviceman, in any conflict.
This led Iraqi insurgents to nickname the 6-foot-2, 220-pound Texan “the devil” and put a bounty on his head.
People often describe me as troubled. I’m not going to say that I’m not. But I’m not crazy. I have troubles. A lot of us do. But you need to understand where I’m coming from and why I am the way I am. Considering what I’ve been through, it’s a miracle that I’ve been able to hold it together. I’m just trying to find my way. [I’ve read newspaper stories about me that] say, “Experts testify [that boy] is psychotic.” The way they describe me is wrong—bi-polar, depression, pyro, whatever. I know I’m not at all.
PALMDALE, Calif. — A man was killed today in a two-vehicle crash in the Littlerock area near Palmdale, authorities said.
The crash occurred at about 4:30 a.m. on Avenue T at Dunford Avenue, according to the California Highway Patrol.
According to the preliminary investigation, Jose Olivarez, 41, of Littlerock, was driving a 1998 Plymouth Voyager east on Avenue T when he turned left at Dunford Avenue “directly into the path of a westbound 2006 Chrysler,” the CHP said in a statement.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Jurors deadlocked today in the trial of a reputed gang member charged in the 2010 Halloween killing of a 5-year-old South Los Angeles boy who was shot while showing off his Spider-man costume in his backyard.
Superior Court Judge Bob S. Bowers declared a mistrial after the jury’s foreman said the panel was not able to reach a unanimous verdict in Leonard Hall Jr.’s trial.
A 26-year-old female intern was killed by an African lion inside a cage at an exotic cat sanctuary in California Wednesday afternoon, authorities said.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with her and her family at this critical time,” said Dale Anderson, founder of Project Survival Cat Haven in Dunlap.
The lion, a 350-pound cat named Cous Cous, was shot and killed, officials said.
CHICAGO—First Lady Michelle Obama will travel to Chicago to attend the funeral service for 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton
The King College Prep student was shot and killed just a week after performing at events for President Barack Obama’s inauguration.
On Jan. 29, students were let out of King College Prep early after taking exams. Hadiya and about 10 people were hanging out, huddling under a canopy in nearby Harsh Park near 45th and Oakenwald to avoid the rain.
