Teen charged in Iowa store killings (47-year-old mother of 10 & 61-year-old clerk Sheila Myers )

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Omaha World Herald

By Mindy Baker

ALGONA, Iowa — Vicky Bowman-Hall did everything the masked robber asked Monday night. The 47-year-old mother of 10 filled the robber's duffel bag with cigarettes and money from the convenience store cash register.

Then he shot her in the head. She died a short time later at Kossuth Regional Health Center.
About 90 minutes later, the scene was repeated 25 miles south in Humboldt. There 61-year-old clerk Sheila Myers was shot to death.

Michael Richard Swanson, 17, of St. Louis Park, Minn., was arrested just before midnight in Webster City. Tuesday morning he was charged in Kossuth County Court with murder and robbery in the first-degree in Bowman-Hall's death. He was charged similarly in Humboldt County Court with Myers' death.

Bowman-Hall was working at the Crossroads gas station and convenience store on Highway 18 in Algona when, according to court documents, a man entered the store at about 9 p.m. with a loaded handgun and a duffel bag. Bowman-Hall complied with his requests to fill the bag with money and cigarettes but he shot her anyway.


Read more: http://www.omaha.com/article/20101116/NEWS97/711169875#teen-charged-in-iowa-store-killing

[flvegan]

1. What a piece of shit this kid is.

Oops..."alleged" piece of shit.

[old mark]

2. Some people will tell you not to try to resist a robber - to just give him what he asks for,

but too many times it ends like this - with the dead victim. I would never trust my life to the good graces of someone crazy or stupid enough to rob me.


mark

[proteus_lives]

3. +1

[LisaL]

9. How are you going to defend yourself against someone with a gun?

Add to this that most robbers want money and likely won't shoot you, so giving the robber his money still is the best strategy. And never mind that's what cashiers are told to do, they are told not to resist.

[Egnever]

11. Guns aren't magic

despite what Hollywood shows you. Getting off that killing shot takes a degree of skill presenting yourself as an easy target makes the skill required to get that killing shot much less.

[LisaL]

12. So you are going to run?

If you are behind the counter not much space to run there.

[Egnever]

13. run, throw things, hit them with whatever object I can get in my hands

One thing I know is standing there waiting to be shot does not improve my chances.

[LisaL]

14. The article says the lady followed company policy.

The clerks are told to comply and give the robber what he wants.

[Egnever]

16. i have no problem with giving him anytthinghe wants

And the idea that i would try to protect the corporations assets with my life is silly. I don't need the boss to tell me that. Having said that were i put in that situation i would tell the guy right away take whatever he wants and start making my exit.

[WildEyedLiberal]

21. I'd rather get fired than get shot to death

Somehow "company policy" seems pretty damn irrelevant when someone's pointing a gun in my face.

[LisaL]

28. I realize anyone would rather get fired than be shot to death.

I still haven't heard any good ideas how one is supposed to avoid being shot to death in a situation as described.

[WildEyedLiberal]

29. It's like another poster said - hitting a moving target is a lot harder

And your average thug is far from a marksman. Anyone can shoot a person at point blank range, but if the victim made a sudden movement - ducked, ran, threw something handy at the thug's face, anything - her odds of surviving increase pretty substantially. What happened to the days when cashiers kept a gun behind the counter? If that's not legal in their area, at the least they should be allowed some pepper spray or a baseball bat or SOMETHING.

[ronnie624]

31. Whether skilled or not,

if someone fires a weapon in your direction at close range, there is a high degree of probability you will be shot.

My advise to anyone confronted in a robbery, is to promptly do exactly as the perpetrator says. Resisting increases the risk to yourself and others. Most of the time, by far, a robbery suspect wants to get the money and get out. He's already hyped-up on fear and adrenaline, and if he feels threatened, he's far more likely to shoot.

[Pavulon]

26. Very hard to hit a target

moving away at a 45deg angle using cover/concealment. If you can run, run, if you can shoot shoot.

[Egnever]

10. I agree and I was shocked to learn

From my wife thats is a teacher that they now have drills at school for a person on campus with a gun and the direction the students are given is it sit facing the wall that the door is on so that if someone looks in the door window they see no one and if they force their way in the students dont anger the shooter with eye contact.

I find this setting the students up to be sitting ducks as while they cant "anger" the shooter with eye contact they also cant see an attack coming. The second problem i have with this is if its a columbine type situation then the shooter will be well aware that there are people in these rooms and that they have been trained not to resist. Seems to be a recipe for disaster to me.

My wife insists this plan was developed by psychologists and other experts in violent crime. However I told her flat out when my child reaches the age where he goes to that school i will have other instructions for him.

Not being antagonistic is one thing offering up your back and becoming a willing victim is another.

[Pavulon]

27. People at VT were shot at close range with a pistol

that is much harder when people are leaving post haste.

[raccoon]

30. ITA, Mark...I'd like to think I wouldn't either, but I believe we don't ever know how we'd act if

something like this happened to us in RL.

Theoretically, ITA with this:

Never trust your assailant. No matter what they say, no matter how believable they may sound. If they need a ride some place or need you to go into a hallway or a room. No matter what- don't move. The real reason your assailant wants you to move is because he can't do what he needs to do in your present location. Since he can't do what he wants to you in your current location he needs to move you. A more recent example is the BTK killer Dennis Rader, the serial killer who terrorized Wichita for 31 years, naming himself BTK for "bind, torture, kill". Rader would convince his victims that he was only going to rob them and steal their car, but he needed to tie them up so they wouldn't call the police right away. Once the victim was tied up, he was able to do as he wished.

http://www.boxingscene.com/martial-arts/44998.php

[One Fly]

4. Let it come around for him as well.

I was just in Humboldt a bunch last week. It's a nice little town as is Algona. A week ago tonight I had a excellent meal At Changs on main street.

I believe in the rule of law but it's things like this where a discussion needs to be held about swift justice. You killer little prick!

These people back in the cornfield don't need this shit nor do others. The problem is this will give way to even more crazy laws enacted by a religiously insane populace who elected a number of people just like themselves.

These towns are small enough that you can't help but know many who live there.

Both families have my sympathy and you can bet both of these towns are in mourning.

[proteus_lives]

5. I wonder if this murderer shouldn't be charged as an adult either.

:eyes:

[CakeGrrl]

6. Damn well better charge him as an adult

He knew what he was doing and did it twice in rapid succession.

[proteus_lives]

18. I agree.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

15. We should just shoot him right now.

[proteus_lives]

19. Can't say I'd shed a tear.

[madrchsod]

7. well he`ll be doing life in a prison in iowa....

that`s where my mothers kin settled in the late 1800`s. everyone knows everyone for miles around.

[durkermaker]

8. kid is pure evil - look at his pic

http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/minn-teen-charged-with-743472.html



i feel so bad for the families - takes a big man to gun down unarmed women

what's stunning is, that he did it, had an hour and a half to absorb what he'd done

then did the exact same thing again

[truthisfreedom]

20. Fuck shackling his arms. They need to shackle his face.

God, what a piece of shit.

[joshcryer]

24. Indeed, the guy is a fucking psychopath.

[sally cat]

17. Let's see, feed and water and shelter him for 70+ years or...

parole him in 30? I don't believe in the death penalty so that's out.

[christx30]

25. I say just

stick him in a cell, lose the key. Slip a meal in there every day, but that's it. It's his bed and toilet in that cell for the rest of his life. No phone calls. No visitors, except for his lawyer. No reading material, no TV. Cell, bed, toilet until the day his heart stops.

[bluedigger]

22. It's always a shame when the cowardly psychopaths fail to turn the gun on themselves.

Now we're responsible for the piece of shit.:grr:

[joshcryer]

23. Affidivit is open and shut:

http://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/globegazette.com/content/tncms/assets/editorial/a/08/c1a/a08c1af6-f1df-11df-ac23-001cc4c002e0-revisions/4ce31e5ec13c7.pdf.pdf

He'll plead guilty most likely. Get life imprisonment.