Two years ago when Tim Saari got into trouble with the law, he looked to his best friend — a father, a business owner — for guidance.
"He sat me down and said how I had to get a job and get my life together and stop making mistakes," Saari recalled Thursday afternoon. "He was kind of like my mentor."
But Thursday, that mentor, Ryan D. Petersen, was appearing in Ramsey County District Court on a first-degree murder charge. He's accused of fatally shooting law clerk Chase Passauer in an office above the St. Paul restaurant W.A. Frost & Company in April.
Saari, just three days out of prison after serving an 11-month sentence for terroristic threats, appeared to be the only person in court Thursday supporting Petersen.
"It's a huge shock to me," Saari said of the allegations against his friend.
A grand jury handed down an indictment Wednesday that upgraded the original count filed against Petersen from second-degree murder with intent to first-degree murder, and also added one count each of second-degree murder with intent and possession of a firearm by an ineligible person.
Petersen, 37, of St. Paul, is charged with shooting Passauer, 23, of Minneapolis, six times in the stomach on April 7 at North Star Criminal Defense, on the second floor of the Dacotah Building in the Cathedral Hill neighborhood.
Petersen, who had hired one of the firm's attorneys to represent him in a drunken driving and assault case, fired the attorney that day and had shown up at the office when he couldn't reach the attorney by phone. Passauer was the only person in the office.
