Mistaking Girl, 2, for Her Dad, Police Sniper Killed Her

KCUR delves into the tragic 2022 death of Clesslyn Crawford
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 31, 2024 9:30 AM CDT
Mistaking Girl, 2, for Her Dad, Police Sniper Killed Her
Stock photo.   (Getty Images / Daniel Tadevosyan)

On March 26, 2022, Taylor Shutte called the police in Baxter Springs, Kansas, and asked for help. Responding to what dispatchers said sounded like a fight, officers found Shutte, 27, and her boyfriend Eli Crawford, 38, in their small trailer. Officers asked Crawford to come out, but instead, he retreated and a little girl came to the door: the couple's 2-year-old daughter, Clesslyn. Shortly after that, Shutte walked outside and was shot dead by Crawford, just seven minutes after she'd called police. Within two hours, both Crawford and the toddler were also dead—Clesslyn having been fatally shot in the head by a police sniper from nearby Joplin, Missouri. KCUR took a long look at that night around the two-year anniversary of the tragedy, in a piece headlined, "Why did he take the shot?"

The bottom line is, we may never truly understand. The sniper, who has not been publicly identified, told investigators he believed he had a line of sight on Crawford, who had started firing relentlessly on police as soon as he killed Shutte, through a window. In deciding not to charge "Sniper 1," the Cherokee County attorney's office noted that Clesslyn may have been standing on a sofa in front of the window at the time. The KCUR piece details the training police snipers go through—noting that only very rarely do they actually fire—and talks to experts who explain why the shot would have been so dangerous even if it truly was Crawford at the window. The outlet also talks to the family still mourning the girl they called "Clessie." Read it in full here. (Or read more longform recaps.)

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