Officer Crittendon and Auxillary Sergeant Herbert L. Goss were shot when they stopped two escaped convicts in a stolen car. Sergeant Goss was shot to death as he reached the drivers window. Officer Crittendon was shot in the abdomen by the other convict as he walked to the passenger side of the vehicle. Officer Crittendon died from his wounds at Southeast Missouri Hospital eleven days later.

Both convicts along with a third convict had escaped from a jail in San Luis Obispo, California, on Febuary 28, 1961. Before reaching Missouri they robbed a supermarket and a liquor store in New Mexico and Kansas. The third suspect was left behind at a supermarket they were about to rob in Cape Girardeau when they were spotted by Officer Crittendon and Sergeant Goss. After they shot the two officers they stole a car from a group of college students at Southeast Missouri State College. Still later they beat up a farmer in Glen Allen, Missouri, and took his car. They then exchanged gunfire with the Greenville, Missouri Sheriff and a State Trooper before escaping. All of these events took place the same day Officer Crittendon and Sergeant Goss were shot.

The next day State Troopers arrested one of the suspects at a service station near Cape Girardeau. Hours later the second suspect was captured in a wooded area near Grassy, Missouri. Both suspects were convicted of murdering Officer Crittendon and Sergeant Goss. One, Douglas Wayne Thompson, was sentenced to life in prison. The other one, Sammy Aire Tucker, was executed in the gas chamber on July 26, 1963.

Officer Crittendon had resigned from the department and was serving his last shift. He was murdered 90 minutes before his shift ended. He served the Missouri State Highway Patrol as a driver-examiner and served as a deputy juvenile officer. Officer Crittendon was a U.S. Navy veteran. He was survived by his wife, Roceda, and two daughters, Jeri and Teri. Interred: Cape County Memorial Park Cemetery.

Reserve Sergeant Goss was survived by his wife, Mae and two step-daughters, Mrs. Virginia Rhyne and Mrs. Ruth Weaver; one sister, Mrs. Lillie Wolters, and four step-grandchildren. He was a World War I veteran.
Interred: Fairmount Cemetery.