At some point in the near future, the name of the Joplin Police Department sniper who accidentally shot and killed 2-year-old Clesslyn Crawford March 26, 2022 will be made public.
Attorney Bernard Rhoads, who represents KCUR, a public radio station, told KSNF/KODE that part of an agreement reached between the officer, who is referred to as "John Doe' in court records, and KCUR and Nathaniel Dagley of Webb City, who are listed as plaintiffs and/or intervenors in the case.
The rest of the details of the agreement have not been released.
A letter from attorney Sean McCauley, representing the sniper and sent to Jasper County Circuit Court Judge David Mouton said the agreement had been reached.
The trial had been scheduled to begin April 8.
The City of Joplin was scheduled to release the officer's name in response to a Sunshine Law request when "John Doe" filed a request November 20, 2023 for a temporary restraining order and a permanent injunction.
The sniper was with a JPD contingent that was called in for assistance March 26, 2022 for a standoff at 340 Wyandotte Avenue in Baxter Springs. A female caller told Baxter Springs dispatch she needed helped and when officers arrived, the woman, Taylor Dawn Shutte, 27, was shot to death by Eli Crawford, 37, who then went back into the house with their 2-year-old daughter, Clesslyn Crawford.
Crawford began shooting at officers from the Baxter Springs Police Department and the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office, who called in additional assistance from the Kansas Highway Patrol, Kansas Bureau of Investigation and Joplin Police Department SWAT including John Doe.According to a report issued in September 2023 by the Cherokee County District Attorney's office and including the conclusions of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, Eli Crawford fired more than 90 rounds from the trailer window.
Crawford offered a deal to negotiators, according to the report.
Negotiations continued for the next 20 minutes interspersed with shots from the trailer. At that point, John Doe took the fatal shot, which he described in the report.
"I was presented with his upper torso and his arm. And I could tell it was that, because I could see the triangle of light between his left — his torso and his arm. I aimed at the left side of the frame of the window without hitting the framed — without hitting the frame, and I aimed up to where I thought it would be about his pectoral region and I fired a round.
"I reloaded. Just seconds later, there was a muffled shot. It didn't sound like a normal gunshot I had been hearing. The other two snipers on the west side, watching the front door, came over the radio and said they heard a muffled, a muffled, or a round fired from inside."
The muffled shot, the report says, was Crawford killing himself after John Doe's bullet killed his daughter.
Following the investigation, Cherokee County District Attorney's office determined no charges would be filed against John Doe and that he was justified in using deadly force against Eli Crawford, the person he thought he was shooting.
John Doe was also cleared in the Joplin Police Department internal investigation.
John Doe's petition said he had been the target of an anonymous Facebook group Blue Wall of Silence, which has offered a cash reward "for the name of the Joplin, Missouri officer who fired the lethal bullet into the skull of a little toddler in pink pajamas last march in Kansas," and which has posted other messages the petition describes as "disturbing."
The release of Doe's name could cause harm to the officer and his family, the petition said.
