Git a rope.
Posted on 11/16/2010 7:23:16 PM PST by xjcsa
ALGONA, Iowa --- A Minnesota teenager has been charged with first-degree murder and first-degree robbery in the shooting deaths Monday night of convenience store clerks in Algona and Humboldt.
The suspect is identified as Michael Richard Swanson, 17, of St. Louis Park, Minn.
Vicky Bowman-Hall, 47, employed by Cenex in Algona, and Sheila Myers, 61, a clerk at the Kum & Go in Humboldt were identified as the two victims of the shootings, said Todd Holmes, Kossuth County Attorney at a news conference at 1 p.m. at Algona City Hall.
No hometowns of the victims are yet available.
According to Holmes, at about 9:05 p.m. a person wearing a ski mask entered the Cenex convenience store in Algona and demanded cash and cigarettes. Bowman-Hall, who was behind the register, complied with the request and was shot. She died of her injuries at Kossuth Regional Health Center in Algona.
At about 10 p.m. Monday, the same subject entered the Kum & Go convenience store at 1212 Eighth St., Humboldt, where he shot and killed cashier Myers. She died at the scene from her injuries.
Autopsies on both women will be performed at the State Medical Examiner's office in Ankeny.
Swanson has been charged with first-degree murder and first-degree robbery in both Kossuth and Humbuldt counties. He is being held in the Kossuth County Jail in Algona.
Holmes said he will be tried as an adult.
Assisting the Algona Police Department in the investigation are the Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation, the Kossuth County Sheriff's Department, the Humboldt County Sheriff's Department, the Iowa State Patrol, the Webster City Police Department, Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and the Hamilton County Sheriff's Department.
Git a rope.
So much for the advice that your best bet is to simply comply. At least in this case.
He will be making some inmate a happy guy for a long time. He won’t be smirking then...
Creepy smirking little psychopath.
You have to be kidding me? I was going to ask “where are his parents?” but never mind. I don’t think he has had any parental upbringing in, say about 17 years. Judging by the looks of him.
Sadly, Iowa has no death penalty as this guy certainly would be deserving of capital punishment.
"Outside of school, he was a trouble maker,” friend Devin Wynn said. “He would do stupid things. Go jack stuff from stores. Shoplift a lot." According to reports, Swanson has a criminal record dating back to the age of 13. Most recently, he was busted for stealing a car and driving drunk. He was sentenced to several months at the Hennepin County School for Juvenile Offenders. Michael Swanson did his time and was released on probation just 13 days ago. But Monday, his parents called police to report their son and their car missing. By the time anyone locally had heard from him again, he was shackled, accused of two murders across the border in Iowa......FOX 9 spent the days talking with his friends and former classmates and sadly, no one seems surprised.
The parents should be charged as accessories to murder for their lack of parenting from the time the kid was in diapers.
In the old days, bank tellers simply stood behind the counter. Now most of them are behind some sort of protection (metal bars, etc.).
These convenience store shootings are just heartbreaking. Perhaps it’s time to require owners to put their clerks behind bullet-resistant glass.
That wouldn’t say much for being a free society, but it’s a sign of the times.
Don’t let those who released him on probation off easy, either.
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I doubt it was their fault. Some kids just turn out to be sociopaths.
He was videotaped. Did he know that convenience stores use security cameras? He could have tried to disguise himself, but did not. He decided his best bet was to shoot the clerks. I have encountered insects smarter than this guy.
It reminds me of the Randy Newman song "Little Criminals":
Got a gun from Uncle Freddy
Got a station all picked out
Got a plan and now we’re ready
Gonna take that station out
...
‘Cause we’ve almost made it
We’ve almost made it
We’ve almost made it to the top
He and another inmate were moping floors when the other inmate decided to kill him for an unknown reason.
Broom handle through the eye socket, IIRC.
These convenience store shootings are just heartbreaking. Perhaps it’s time to require owners to put their clerks behind bullet-resistant glass.
I have a better idea. Maybe their clerks should be armed.
By the way, bank tellers here are still just behind counters.
Some have had those precautions for years.
Thirty years ago, the 24 hour gas stations and party stores had a chute installed in the face of the counter. You told the clerk what you wanted and you paid through a small basin under the security glass. After you paid, the clerk would put your items in the chute, lock their side and opened yours. Once you took your stuff they relocked your sides.
That should be “...the 24 hour gas stations and party stores IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD...”
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