Eagan Man Arrested in Connection with New Year's Death on Slater Road

Eagan police are treating the Jan. 1 death of a 36-year-old man as a homicide, and have arrested his roommate in connection to the incident, according to Eagan Police Department Spokesperson Desiree Schroepfer.

The roommate, 28-old-year Samuel Walter Petersen of Eagan, is currently being held at the Dakota County Jail, pending formal criminal charges. The victim's name has not yet been released, pending notification of family members.

At 11:56 p.m. on Jan. 1, police and paramedics responded to a call on the 4500 block of Slater Road, right on the Eagan-Burnsville border. The caller, Petersen, told police he had been fighting with the victim, who had fallen unconscious and was not breathing.

Paramedics and firefighters assisted Eagan police with life-saving efforts, but the victim could not be resuscitated.

During the response, police observed injuries to the victim's face, and detained Petersen and two other individuals for questioning, according to Schroepfer.

A subsequent investigation revealed that Petersen had been the victim's roommate since June 2012, and that both witnesses had blood-alcohol concentrations of .195 and .205. Police are still waiting on lab results for Petersen's blood-alcohol concentration.

Police have yet to determine what caused the Jan. 1 altercation.

The Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office will be conducting an autopsy to determine victim's cause of death.

Petersen has a previous arrest for misdemeanor assault.

This is the second year in a row that the New Year's Holiday in the South Metro area has been marred by a death. On New Year's Eve of 2011, Kyle Alan Dague, 23, fatally shot 22-year-old Justin James Schauer in the forehead while playing a "game" with a handgun. In late November, Dague was sentenced to 48 months in prison for Schauer's shooting.