| Submit your comments on this article | ||
| -Lurid Crime Tales- | ||
| Marine, back from Iraq, shot dead in his home town | ||
| 2008-06-02 | ||
| 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 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. Yeah, that's a tough one. These two have so much to contribute - like being permanently assigned to "barrel" duty in the state prison. "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. If he'd been carrying enough money for a couple hits of crank, he'd have been deemed an OK guy, it seems. 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. Ean can't even spell his own name right.
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.
| ||
| Posted by:gorb |
| #16 You want to see unhinged? A marine survives Basra only to come back to America to be taken out at a bus stop. THAT is unhinged. Unless you have a good Dr. telling folks to chill about it... Now, all you folks get back to your happy la la land, while America continues it downward spiral. Oh, by the way troops, better stay in Iraq. At least there, no liberals have influenced society to take you out when you are unarmed and back in the US. |
| Posted by: www 2008-06-02 23:45 |
| #15 Good Lord, www - that's positively unhinged. You need to chill. That's completely uncalled for. I certainly hope you're not sober. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2008-06-02 23:34 |
| #14 Jerk? Why don't you come right out with your name calling, too, Barbi baby. I thought we were being called "Vigilantes" by the HIGHLY educated, better than all of you White. Or maybe we should be kissing the butts of anti-war Liberals as White wants us to do per a comment on another part of the page, since he testified that he is a liberal, too. Oh, but Liberal only to a certain extent. What liberal university did you go to White? One that with the ACLU destroyed any moral influence in that university and then allows for "Free Palestine" mantras and foot baths for the Mohammedans in America? Next time you stand up for the murderers of a Marine shot in the neck on a street corner, then say they should get the death penalty, (two faced and narrow minded perspective) don't leave out the media and the entire Liberal establishment that fermented that hatrid of that Marine on the street corner in an American city, chump. |
| Posted by: www 2008-06-02 22:55 |
| #13 www. Don't dis Dr. Steve for your faults |
| Posted by: Frank G 2008-06-02 22:28 |
| #12 www, don't be a jerk. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2008-06-02 22:07 |
| #11 Dr. White Yeah. Precisely what I am refering to. Has always presented himself as better than anyone else with his put downs, and per NSpimble, all must bow down... |
| Posted by: www 2008-06-02 21:47 |
| #10 I thought Dr. White's comments were clear and non-insulting. If you want to get on his case about the pink highlighting, that's one thing but questioning his courage is quite another. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2008-06-02 21:39 |
| #9 What are you trying to say about Rantburgers, Steve White? That is the second time you have pulled that stunt today in the comment sections. Why don't you have the courage to be more direct in your insulting of people here? |
| Posted by: www 2008-06-02 21:07 |
| #8 As to the two accused men, let's not become vigilantes about this. We have a justice system, so let's let it work. They get lawyers, a judge, and a jury. Let's make sure the prosecutor does his/her job properly; we don't want another Nifong-style travesty. If they're guilty, and if they're convicted, and if the conviction holds up on appeal, then they get the death penalty. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2008-06-02 12:35 |
| #7 I've removed the graphic. It's inappropriate when talking about one of our fine young Marines, that's for sure. AoS |
| Posted by: Steve White 2008-06-02 12:33 |
| #6 Am I the only one who thinks that graphic is completely inappropriate? For any story. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2008-06-02 11:49 |
| #5 Ohh, but Ohio is the swing state that decides the fate of the nation in elections? Puhlease. The rust belt continues to be a disasterous drag on the rest of America. All that dem socialism is sure creating a utopia, huh yah? |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2008-06-02 11:36 |
| #4 Ean Farrow, 19, and Thomas Ray III, 20, both of Cleveland. Why not let the Marines take care of these two. Let the fellow Marines decide if these two have any aspects worthy of living on this earth. Then they can use them for target practice. It will help young promising men learn to shoot and protect our country, while, saving American taxpayers if they go to prison. |
| Posted by: Chris 2008-06-02 11:32 |
| #3 Mrs. Bobby says a recent study shows more forclosures are clustered around military bases. Mrs. Bobby hasn't lived around military bases to understand that the *Kerryville (n), life, style, and perspective forever frozen in time of the pre-1980s. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2008-06-02 09:00 |
| #2 JHC, these two fuckers need to swing. The needle's too good for them. Let Robert's fire team have some bayonet practice on them. |
| Posted by: Snash Oppressor of the Mohammatans aka Broadhead6 2008-06-02 08:04 |
| #1 So this isn't the military's fault? Wait for this one: Mrs. Bobby says a recent study shows more forclosures are clustered around military bases. (She figures they have less choice about when to move than the general population.) That may only be in the D.C. area, but when The New York Times picks up on it, it'll be "Soldiers Skip Out" or "Military Abandons Transferred Troops". |
| Posted by: Bobby 2008-06-02 06:34 |