Man Charged With Murdering Law Clerk

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A Woodbury man has been charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of a law clerk in an office above a popular St. Paul restaurant.

Prosecutors charged 37-year-old Ryan David Petersen in Ramsey County District Court on Friday in the killing of 23-year-old Chase Allen Passauer, of Minneapolis. Passauer was clerking at North Star Criminal Defense above the W.A. Frost & Co. restaurant in the Cathedral Hill neighborhood when he was killed Thursday afternoon.

Petersen had been a client of an attorney at law firm who was representing him on charges that he punched a Woodbury police officer who was arresting him for drunken driving in November

It wasn't immediately clear if Peterson had an attorney on the new charge who could comment on his behalf.