'Don't run up on me, bro:' fatal stabbing took only three seconds

FORT WAYNE, Ind. ---It took three seconds to mortally stab the victim.

And a short time later to arrest Draylon Marquise Crutchfield.

Draylon Crutchfield

Now the accused faces a dreary and lonely lifetime in an Indiana prison, if convicted.

Crutchfield was booked into the Allen County Jail Friday morning after he admitted he was the one who used the knife. The stabbing occurred around 9:30 p.m. July 24.

But.

Williams, according to Crutchfield and witnesses, was the one who initially attacked Crutchfield, punching him as he sat on the couch in a home in the 2500 block of Stardale Drive. 

The story, told in a probable cause affidavit submitted by homicide detective Ben MacDonald, seems to point to a sad family dynamic. Why did Williams object to the 25-year-old Crutchfield “sleeping on his mama’s couch?”

At the start of the drama, Crutchfield was watching television with another person who went outside to make a phone call.

Williams was watching the living room from a cutout window in the kitchen and when that person went outside, he got aggressive with Crutchfield, court documents said.

“I finna beat the s—t out of you man. I’ve been waiting on this s—t,” Williams said to Crutchfield. Williams turned over an infant child he was holding to another man. By that time Crutchfield already had a knife in his hand that apparently was sitting on the coffee table.

“Don’t run up on me bro. Don’t run up on me man,” Crutchfield said he told Williams. He said Williams started to punch him in the head and that his vision went blurry. That’s when he stabbed Williams, court documents said.

The man who took Muhammad’s baby said Crutchfield started to fight and it looked like Crutchfield was losing. He fell into the couch with Williams leaning over him.

The witness attempted to break up the fight just as Williams jumped back and said he’d been stabbed.

Another male witness said he was outside and heard the two get into a “heated argument” He saw Williams run from the kitchen into the living room and start punching Crutchfield seated on the couch, court documents said.

It didn’t last longer than three seconds before Williams was stabbed, the witness said. 

After the stabbing, court documents say the two ran outside and Crutchfield went to a neighbor’s apartment, covered in blood. He left the knife there.

When police arrived, Williams was transported to Lutheran Main Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.

All it took was a kitchen knife and 18-year-old Williams was dead. The Allen County Coroner identified the victim Friday.