Marine, back from Iraq, shot dead in his home town

[Mike Baker]

LINK

CLEVELAND, Ohio (AP) -- On leave from the violence he had survived in the war in Iraq, a young Marine was so wary of crime on the streets of his own home town that he carried only $8 to avoid becoming a robbery target.

Despite his caution, Lance Cpl. Robert Crutchfield, 21, was shot point-blank in the neck during a robbery at a bus stop.

Feeding and breathing tubes kept him alive 41/2 months, until he died of an infection on May 18.

Two men have been charged in the attack, and Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason said Friday the case was under review to decide whether to seek the death penalty.

"It is an awful story," said Alberta Holt, the young Marine's aunt and his legal guardian when he was a teenager determined to flee a troubled Cleveland school for safer surroundings in the suburbs.

Crutchfield was attacked on January 5 while he and his girlfriend were waiting for a bus. He had heeded the warnings of commanders that a Marine on leave might be seen as a prime robbery target with a pocketful of money, so he only carried $8, his military ID card and a bank card.

"They took it, turned his pockets inside out, took what he had and told him since he was a Marine and didn't have any money he didn't deserve to live. They put the gun to his neck and shot him," Holt told The Associated Press.

The two men charged in the attack were identified as Ean Farrow, 19, and Thomas Ray III, 20, both of Cleveland. Their attorneys did not respond to The Associated Press' requests for comment.

Crutchfield knew he was returning to Iraq for another tour of duty, but had hesitated to tell his family until he was nearing the end of his 30-day leave.

He apparently had a troubled family. Holt wouldn't discuss it except to say "his mom and dad didn't raise him, just his grandmother and me." He didn't smoke or drink, she said.

He had attended Cleveland's inner-city East High School, but asked that he be allowed to live with his aunt and grandmother and attend suburban Bedford High School for his final two years.

"He saw his school was in turmoil and asked to get out," Holt said.

Bedford High teachers recalled Crutchfield's smile, his pride in his appearance, his determination to join the Marine Corps after graduation in 2005 and his aspiration to become an architect.

"He was friendly and kind and willing to help out in any way that he could," counselor Yvonne Sims said in an e-mail.

Connie LaNasa, who works in the school office, said Crutchfield was a well-behaved student and went about his school work with little notice.

"He lived out what he wanted to do and that is to be a Marine," LaNasa said.

Faculty members remembered Crutchfield as a top student in the computer design program, an office assistant and participant in the prom fashion show.

After his long hospitalization, an infection broke out a week before he died. "He said it felt like he was getting hit by lightning," Holt said.

When Crutchfield's body was laid out Tuesday in the Sacrificial Missionary Baptist Church, his white military dress hat was tugged down close to his eyes to conceal the skull flap that had been kept open to relieve swelling in his brain.

Marines provided an honor guard at his funeral service and carried the casket to his grave at the Western Reserve National Cemetery near Akron.

He was buried there on the same day as a Vietnam veteran, two veterans from World War II and three from Korea.

What a shame, RIP Marine
Baker

 

[LineDoggie]

If ever there was a reason for the Death Penalty, it is for such Craven individuals who did this.

RIP Marine
Say Hello to Chesty

 

[GAP]

All those empty lamp posts along the streets.....decorations in the form of the assailants would be appropriate...

RIP Marine...

 

[karl28]

    I never understood why bad things have to happen to good people just doesn't make any sense.  I sure hope that the court give these jerks the death Penalty these scum bags do not deserve to breath the same air as every one else . 


        To the fallen Marine RIP Troop

 

[ENGINEERS WIFE]

RIP Lance Cpl Crutchfield

Maybe they should take these two jacka$$'s and send them on a little tour of their own in Iraq, maybe without weapons and only $8 in their pockets.  And then we'll see what happens!!

 

[Rodahn]

This is just a damn shame. In this scenario, I would like to see the two "persons" who did this suffer a long slow horrible death, unfortunately, we as a civilized people cannot do such things, even when it's justified. Maybe they should just be banished to some desolate island in the Aleution's

RIP Marine.

 

[GeorgeD]

I say free them and send them to the nearest marine base, pull all the MPs out and give all marines amnesty for one Night...


Anything I or anyone else can call them, cannot describe the kind of animals they are.


RIP Lance Corporal

 

[NL_engineer]

I'd say send them to Iraq


RIP Marine

 

[lone bugler]

I'd say send them to Iraq


RIP Marine

+1, the death penalty would be too easy, make these two "things" useful and send them outside the wire

 

[OldSolduer]

Hand em to Al Qaeda for practice.....

 

[xena]

RIP Marine.  Semper Fi.

The assailants?  Sentencing them to mine clearance duty would be good.  Meh, don't bother with that expensive protective gear for them.

I know no judge in the western world would agree with me about that, but there would be a poetic justice about it.

 

[Sigger]

This is just a damn shame. In this scenario, I would like to see the two "persons" who did this suffer a long slow horrible death, unfortunately, we as a civilized people cannot do such things, even when it's justified.

Eventhough I am civilized, given the chance I would certainly do such a thing.

RIP brother.