Man fatally shot, 3 hurt after years of conflict in Minnesota farm family, sheriff says

Years of conflict in a southern Minnesota farm family boiled over and left a man fatally shot and his parents and brother injured, officials said.

The violence erupted about 5:10 p.m. Wednesday in the Petersen family farmhouse about 13 miles northwest of Albert Lea, according to the Freeborn County Sheriff’s Office.

Shot twice in the chest was 45-year-old Joshua Robert Petersen, the Sheriff’s Office said. He was taken by emergency medical responders to a Rochester hospital, where he died less than three hours later, the Sheriff’s Office added.

Injured during the conflict were his parents, 71-year-old David Gerald Petersen and 69-year-old Shari Gail Petersen, and their son, 47-year-old Jason David Petersen, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

The couple were hospitalized with “blunt force injuries,” according to the Sheriff’s Office, while the son’s injuries were not specified.

A search warrant affidavit filed Friday afternoon in District Court by a sheriff’s detective disclosed that David Petersen was “in possession of the firearm” before it was surrendered to law enforcement.

Calls to 911 from the home revealed that the other weapon used during the conflict was a steel pipe, the filing said.

Two children were in the home during the conflict but were not physically harmed, the sheriff said.

No arrests have been announced as of midday Friday.

Court records show that the parents and Jordan Petersen were each granted court-ordered protection from Joshua Petersen in 2022.

Shari Petersen told the court that over the years Joshua Petersen has said he wished she would die, accused her of stealing papers from his home, disable doorknobs on the parents’ house and “threatened to destroy me and my husband.” David Petersen’s petition alleged Joshua Petersen broke into the family’s home and stole documents that he then posted on social media.

Jordan Petersen’s petition accused his brother of sending him hundreds of harassing messages, including one that said he would ruin his life, “just like your mommy and daddy did me.”