Marine On Leave From Iraq Gunned Down At Bus Stop
CLEVELAND, Ohio — 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-black in the neck during a robbery at a bus stop. Feeding and breathing tubes kept him alive 4 1/2 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 Jan. 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.
(AP)
Be respectful of others and their opinions. Inflammatory remarks and inane leftist drivel will be deleted. It ain’t about free speech, remember you’re in a private domain. My website, my prerogative.
If you can't handle using your real email address, don't bother posting a comment.
Where are the Libtards now saying that Iraq is so unsafe. I have been saying it all along, our cities are more dangerous to Americans than the cities of Iraq.
June 2nd, 2008 at 7:03 amthis is a sad moment! the killers should be stripped naked and beaten in the streets for killing an american hero!
June 2nd, 2008 at 7:08 amFUCK. That sucks. What a steaming pile of shit some of our cities are. We need Rudy to a supra-mayor and take his NY model to all of the lefty run urban blight ares.
June 2nd, 2008 at 7:09 amTake the two fuckers and send them to Iraq and turn them loose in Fallujah…lets see how they survive on the streets in another city…
June 2nd, 2008 at 7:33 amA crying shame. I hope those two get their hides nailed to the wall for a long time, if not the death penalty.
June 2nd, 2008 at 7:35 amWe’ve got names, and a city of residence. That’s all the intel we need to do a “hard hit” Iraq style.
June 2nd, 2008 at 7:54 amIt’s pretty bad when the streets of our cities are more violent than Iraq. If our military personnel on leave are a target for thugs and hooligans I say we ‘deputize’ them when they go on leave, then issue them a sidearm and a carry permit.
But that’s just MHO … I could be wrong.
June 2nd, 2008 at 8:57 amI would have those two corrupt soul lined up on a wall ready to be EXECUTED BY MARINE CORP FIRING SQUAD. NO MERCY FOR THE WICKED!
June 2nd, 2008 at 10:04 amI read this story at work and knew it would be posted here by Pat. I was beyond anguished when I read it.
When I got to this line:
“. . . 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,”
I immediately went from anguish to revulsion.
The two sub-human things that took this Marine’s life deserve nothing but the death penalty.
They are the lowest life forms on the planet.
The degree of hatred by certain groups and media in our country towards our military helps fuel this kind of mentality in twisted pukes like them.
The horror and pain that they have caused to every single person who loved Lance Cpl. Robert Crutchfield can never be removed including the words they spoke as they shot him.
“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.”
Under review to decide whether to seek the death penalty . . . if it were me and any of the people who come to this site and many other Americans - that review would last less than half a second. There is nothing to review.
I have nothing but prayers for his family, his girlfriend, all who served with him, and all his loved ones.
May he rest in peace.
June 2nd, 2008 at 6:32 pmI agree. They should be EXECUTED BY MARINE CORP FIRING SQUAD. NO MERCY FOR THE WICKED!
June 2nd, 2008 at 6:34 pm