The 25-year-old marine, charged with killing ex-navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle and his friend, was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, The Associated Press reports citing police records.
Eddie Ray Routh, the Iraq War veteran, told the police that he was taken to a mental asylum twice in the past five months. Following a threat to kill himself and his family, Routh was taken to a mental hospital Sept. 2, say Lancaster police records.
The Erath County Jail guards had to use a taser on Routh Sunday night after he became aggressive and refused to give jailers the tray on which he had been served dinner, reports ABC News.
Routh has been placed on suicide watch and is confined to a solitary cell and restrained to a chair, sources told ABC News.
The marine shot Kyle and his friend at an exclusive shooting range near Glen Rose, Texas and fled in a pickup truck of Kyle. He was arrested at his home in Lancaster, suburban Dallas, and is charged with capital murder and two charges of murder.
According to The New York Times reports, Routh's mother, Jodi , had asked for help for her son. The newspaper further reports that America's most lethal sniper may have agreed to help Routh because they shared bonds beyond the battlefield.
Kyle and Routh both attended the same high school 14 years apart in Midlothian, a woodsy suburb of 18,000 about 25 miles southwest of Dallas.
Routh, who has been held on a $3 million bond, will most likely get a lawyer skilled in handling capital cases, said ABC News reports.
