by Melissa Lehto
Crowds lined the roadway from Minneapolis, MN, to Reid’s Funeral Service in L’Anse as the bodies of the two young firefighters, Alan “AJ” Swartz and James “Jimmy” Shelifoe, were escorted home on Tuesday, Aug 30, 2016. Officers from the Keweenaw Bay Tribal Police, Tony Loonsfoot and Jake Misegan, drove to Minneapolis on Monday evening, Aug 29, arriving around 10:30 p.m., to lead the procession to L’Anse the next morning. The procession left Minneapolis from the Thomas-Dougherty Funeral Home at approximately 6:30 a.m. CST, arriving in Baraga on Superior Avenue around 4:15 p.m. EST. According to Loonsfoot the trip home took longer than anticipated, but could not have been done without the help of the surrounding communities and their local authorities along the way. To read more, subscribe to the L’Anse Sentinel online, or buy a print copy at our local retailers.