Supporting veterans was only one way that Kyle tried to establish a new identity off the battlefield; it was hard to let go of being a hero. In January, 2010, Kyle later told friends, he was once again put to the test: two men tried to carjack his truck. He was parked at a gas station, southwest of Dallas. He told the robbers that he just needed to reach back into the truck to get the keys, Michael J. Mooney wrote in a recent article about Kyle, in D Magazine. Mooney, who had worked on the piece with Kyles coöperation, wrote that Kyle turned around and reached under his winter coat instead, into his waistband. With his right hand, he grabbed his Colt 1911a sidearm that is popular with military personnel. He fired two shots under his left armpit, hitting the first man twice in the chest. Then he turned slightly and fired two more times, hitting the second man twice in the chest. Both men fell dead.
Police officers arrived at the scene. When they ran Kyles license, Mooney wrote, something unusual occurred: Instead of his name, address, and date of birth, what came up was a phone number at the Department of Defense. At the other end of the line was someone who explained that the police were in the presence of one of the most skilled fighters in U.S. military history. According to Kyle, security cameras documented the episode.
Like Mooney, I also heard many of Kyles friends and associates tell this story. Details varied, but the ending was the same: Kyle drove away without being charged and, as Mooney put it in a related blog post, later received e-mails from police officers all over the country, thanking him for cleaning up the streets. Mooney never saw the security tape or found other corroborating evidence, such as police files or a coroners report for the dead carjackers. Consider this story confirmed by the man himself, he wrote in the blog post, in which he described Kyle as a true American badass and a real-life action hero.
There is cause to be skeptical. The counties of Erath, Somervell, and Johnson cover the stretch of highway where the incident supposedly happened. Tommy Bryant, the sheriff of Erath County, told me that he could guar-an-damn-tee it didnt happen here. Greg Doyle, the sheriff of Somervell County, said that he had never heard the story, which he found kinda shocking, and added, It did not occur here. Bob Alford, the sheriff of Johnson County, told a local reporter, If something like that happened here I would have heard of it, and Im sure you all at the newspaper would have heard of it. These denials do not automatically disprove the story, of course. And its true that certain operatives, from certain government offices and agencies, drive government-registered vehicles whose license plates prompt civilian authorities to contact a call center in the event of an accident or a traffic stop. But a SEAL with extensive experience in special-mission units told me that the notion of such a provision being in place for a former SEAL driving a private vehicle was bullshit.