Community Corner

Hearing for St. Louis Park Teen Accused of Murder Delayed by Storm

Michael Richard Swanson, 17, was set to appear in court today on a request to have his case transferred to juvenile court.

A hearing for the St. Louis Park teenager in November has been delayed by Iowa snowstorms, the Messenger newspaper reports.

Michael Richard Swanson, 17, was set to appear Tuesday in a Humboldt County court room on a request to transfer the case to juvenile court, according to Iowa court records. That hearing will now be on Thursday morning. Swanson is also facing charges in Kossuth County, but a hearing date has not been set there yet.

Last week, a judge ruled to close the Humboldt County hearing because of the heavy attention the case has received so far. Investigators allege that Swanson shot the two clerks — Vicky Bowman-Hall, 47, and Sheila Myers, 61 — in separate armed robberies Nov. 15 after fleeing from his St. Louis Park home in his mother's vehicle. Police believe that both clerks complied with his demands for cash and cigarettes, but he shot them anyway to keep the clerks from calling the police.

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Swanson had enrolled at St. Louis Park High School on Nov. 8,  just five days after being released from the Hennepin County Home School, a residential treatment center for adolescent offenders. He had been sentenced there in the summer for stealing a vehicle in St. Louis Park and then crashing it while drunk.

According to city records, police had visited the Swanson family home 10 times since 2005, including five times during 2010. Those calls involved reports of theft, assault, a missing person, vehicle theft, a weapons violation and shots fired.

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