By Jane Nambi

The man who killed ‘American Sniper’ author, Chris Kyle, a former marine has been charged with three counts of murder.

Kyle was murdered, alongside another man at an Erath County, Texas, gun range by 25-year-old Marine, Eddie Ray Routh. He was arrested after being involved in a car chase near his home in Lancaster in the deceased’s pick up truck belonging; he used a semiautomatic handgun to kill the two men.

“We have lost more than we can replace. Chris was a patriot, a great father, and a true supporter of this country and its ideals. This is a tragedy for all of us. I send my deepest prayers and thoughts to his wife and two children,” Scott McEwen, co-author of “American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History,” said in a statement to ABC News.

McEwen went on to add saying , “His legacy is not one of being the most lethal sniper in United States history,” McEwen said. In my opinion, his legacy is one of saving lives in a very difficult situation where Americans where going to be killed if he was not able to do his job.”

Routh was apparently recovering from post traumatic stress syndrome. He was arraigned on one count of capital murder and two counts of murder. He was brought to the Erath County Jail today and was being held there on a combined $3 million bond.

Kyle helped found a nonprofit that provides at-home fitness equipment for emotionally and physically wounded veterans, but the director of the foundation said Kyle and Routh had not met through the organization. “Chris was literally the type of guy if you were a veteran and needed help he’d help you,” Travis Cox, the director of FITCO Cares, told The Associated Press. “And from my understanding that’s what happened here. I don’t know how he came in contact with this gentleman, but I do know that it was not through the foundation.”

Authorities identified the other man who was killed with Kyle as 35-year-old Chad Littlefield, who Cox said was Kyle’s neighbor and friend.