Ryan David Petersen was upset about how his criminal trial went so he shot up the law office of his attorney killing the Law Clerk Chase Passauer

I have a funny feeling his name: Ryan David Petersen - was the name on the bogus ID's he bought when he snuck into America!

St. PAUL, MN -- Two lawyers returned to an office on Cathedral Hill in St. Paul on Thursday afternoon and were confronted with a terrible sight: The young man they had hired to be their law clerk was dead, sitting in a desk chair with multiple gunshot wounds to the abdomen.

A disgruntled client of the firm was responsible, according to a criminal complaint filed Friday in Ramsey County District Court. Ryan David Petersen, 37, was unhappy with how he was being represented in a criminal case in Washington County.

Petersen, who has addresses in Woodbury and St. Paul, is being charged with second-degree murder in the shooting that occurred in a law office above the W.A. Frost & Co. restaurant on Selby Avenue in St. Paul.

The shooting was reported just after 4 p.m. in the Dacotah Building at 370 Selby Ave.

The victim was Chase Passauer, a 23-year-old clerk in the North Star Criminal Defense law firm housed in the Dacotah Building. Passauer lived in Minneapolis.

An attorney with the firm, Daniel Adkins, had just begun representing Petersen in a Washington County case in which Petersen was accused of punching a Woodbury police officer who was arresting him for DWI in November.

Angry over representation

The murder complaint against Petersen said he was displeased with the way his case was being handled, and he expressed this to his lawyer, identified in the complaint as DSA, in phone calls and text messages on and before Thursday.

“On the afternoon of April 7, Petersen fired DSA by text message and demanded his money back,” the complaint said. “Petersen expressed a belief that DSA was ignoring his messages. DSA was in court at the time of the messages and could not respond.”

The website for North Star Criminal Defense lists Adkins and James Gempeler as lawyers for the firm.

Just after 4 p.m., DSA and an attorney identified in the criminal complaint as JG returned to the Selby Avenue office.

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