On 11/22/2025 at about 0313 hours, Roseville Police were dispatched to a report of a domestic assault at 29xx Pascal St N in Roseville, Ramsey County. The complainant reported that her boyfriend had attacked her with a hammer. Upon arrival, police spoke to the Complainant, MSS, who had red marks around her throat and neck, dry blood on her lip, and a fresh mark on her forehead. She said that she and her boyfriend, Joel Aaron PETERSON (5/16/1973), had been drinking. She said PETERSON pushed her to the ground, which caused her to hit her head on the floor.
PETERSON then stood over her with a hammer in his hand as if he was going to strike her with it. With his other hand, PETERSON choked her. MSS said she could not speak, could not breath, and that her vision started to go black. She said she was scared for her life because she thought PETERSON was going to kill her. In addition, she said that while he was choking her he said he was going to kill her. MSS said she kicked PETERSON and was able to slide away at which point PETERSON "snapped out” of it and started to calm down.
During BluePrint questions, MSS said that PETERSON had used or threatened to use a weapon against her, had threatened to kill her, had tried to commit suicide, and that she feared that PETERSON would kill her. Police spoke to PETERSON who said that he met MSS four months ago in detox and she had been staying at his house for about three to four weeks. He said that they got into an argument and MSS tried to pull him out of the bed. He said they wrestled and that did not mean to strangle her. As he said this to police, PETERSON motioned with his hands that he had his hands around MSS’ neck.
Finally, PETERSON said he then went to the living room and grabbed a hammer to defend himself. PETERSON was arrested. In a post-Miranda statement, PETERSON said he did not believe he strangled MSS and that he grabbed a hammer because MSS was unpredictable. He said he held the hammer up above his head, did not swing it at her, denied making threats while holding it, and said he did not believe he threatened to kill her.
