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

KimberPB

New member
This really gets my blood boiling! This kid sounds like he actually was a good kid trying to better his life. Worked hard serving his country just to have two thugs, that don't want to work for a living, end his life for $8!

"Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason said Friday the case was under review to decide whether to seek the death penalty." I have a better idea send them both to his unit in Iraq. I'm sure they can find a fit punishment!


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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.
 

......" If the Army and the Navy ever look on Heaven's scenes they will find the streets are guarded by United States Marines."
 
Sad. Many of our streets are about as dangerous as third world countries. Especially those that are "Gun Free".
 
There isn't a painful enough way for these two pieces of human garbage to die! :angry2:

Semper Fi Lance Corporal Crutchfield, Semper Fi.

34t4sw5.jpg
 
There isn't a painful enough way for these two pieces of human garbage to die! :angry2:

Semper Fi Lance Corporal Crutchfield, Semper Fi.

34t4sw5.jpg

I say "Live by the sword, then die by the sword." I've got a bunch of FMJ ammo that would do just fine. Set up a firing squad for the two pieces of garbage. Can you say "Ready, Aim, FIRE!" (We'll have to figure out who's gonna "miss" and hit knee caps, shin bones, etc). :wink:

All kidding aside, I think life in prison without parole would be a better punishment for these low lifes. Would love to see a bunch of huge convicts beating them on a regular basis.

What a sad world we live in. Too bad the guy wasn't taking advantage of Ohio's CC law. The outcome may have been a lot different.



gf
 
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God Bless this Marine. God should be proud to have you added to His ranks.

As for these other two...they'll get theirs, either in this life or the next. They can't escape it.
 
Think of it this way, if he is allowed to carry a gun in Iraq, then why can't he carry one here. His 2nd Amendment right guaranties it. He should not have to have a "permit". He's in another country, supposedly defending our constitution but he can't carry a gun to defend himself in his "own" country. Now he's dead. God bless America. Sorry for the sarcasm but this makes me angry. :madb:
 
There should be special laws for crap like those two. Turn them over to the Marines...justice would be done.
 

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