Client arrested in fatal shooting of clerk at St. Paul law office who wanted to be a lawyer
A new client of a St. Paul criminal defense attorney has been booked into the Ramsey County jail on suspicion of murder in the fatal shooting of a clerk at the law office on Thursday.
The suspect is Ryan David Petersen, 37. A court filing shows a lawyer at North Star Criminal Defense had taken over his Washington County case a week earlier from another defense attorney who apparently practices at a different law firm, according to the Pioneer Press. In the initial case, Petersen was accused of punching a Woodbury police officer during a November arrest for driving while intoxicated.
Authorities said Chase Passauer, 23, a clerk at the law office, died there from multiple gunshot wounds. The shooting was reported to police just after 4 p.m. on Thursday and Petersen was arrested early Friday, after leading police on a chase from Chisago County to Washington County.
The victim’s father, Christopher Passauer, said his son had wanted to go to law school at the University of Minnesota and was “just a good kid, a great kid.”
It isn’t clear what sparked the shooting.
In a written statement provided to the newspaper, the law firm said: “It is impossible to fathom or understand what happened yesterday at our office. We are working through this difficult time as best as we can. But we are grieving the loss of an incredible young man with such a bright and promising future. He wasn’t just our employee. He was our friend. Our brother. He will be missed, but never forgotten.”
Attorney Anthony Bussa of Minneapolis, who previously represented Petersen, said the Twin Cities criminal defense community was shocked by the law-office shooting, the Pioneer Press reports. He said he himself was on amicable terms with Petersen and never anticipated violence from his former client.
Petersen was respectful and never aggressive or threatening in his experience, Bussa told the newspaper.
However, Petersen, who was concerned about the effect that a conviction might have on a business he had recently started, “really wanted answers readily” and “kind of just changed in his tone and his attitude” before he decided to switch to another defense lawyer, the attorney said.
“It’s crazy to think about,” Bussa told the newspaper. “I never saw this coming in a million years.”
The Pioneer Press reports that Petersen was on probation at the time of the shooting for aiding and abetting a third-degree drug sale, for which he was convicted in 2010.
His other convictions included fleeing police in 2009; first-degree criminal property damage with a foreseeable risk of bodily harm in 2005; second-degree assault in a drive-by shooting in 1999; and having a pistol without a permit in 1997, state records say.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune also has a story.
