 Once the suspects inside the house became aware of Crosswhite's presence, one of them pinned him down with rifle fire while the other crept up behind him and killed him with a shotgun blast to the back of the head.While a relief party was being hastily formed in Springfield, the killers took both money and weapons from the fallen policemen and fled.A national manhunt immediately commenced, and the Young brothers were quickly tracked to a rented room in Houston, Texas.