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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, By Thomas
J. Sheeran, 21, was shot point-black in the neck
during a robbery at a bus stop. Feeding and
breathing tubes kept him alive 4˝ 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. |
