After Iraq Tour, Marine Fatally Wounded at Home

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The New York Sun

CLEVELAND — 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 Corporal 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 a 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,” the young Marine’s aunt and his legal guardian, Alberta Holt, said. As a teenager he fled 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,” Ms. 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. Ms. Holt wouldn’t discuss it except to say “his mom and dad didn’t raise him, just his grandmother and me.”

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


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