San Diego: Biotech ‘Wanna Be’ Killer Hans Petersen’s Trial Underway In La Jolla

A San Diego man is on trial for attempting to kill two people two years ago. NBC News-San Diego is reporting that Hans Petersen, the former biotech giant, shot two people in a rampage in 2013 because he was angry about his money problems and a recent impending divorce.

The victims were Steven Dowdy, former business partner and neighbor, and Ronald Fletcher, his former brother-in-law, both of whom were shot in La Jolla out of revenge. Both victims survived the attack. Law enforcement officials believe that he also intended to kill his ex-wife, Bonnie Fletcher.

The San Diego Police Department arrested Hans A. Petersen and charged him with three counts of premeditated attempted murder. On that fateful day, prosecutors say that the former biotech exec grabbed his gun and arrived first at the home of Steven Dowdy, a co-investor in Traversa Therapeutics Inc., a pharmaceutical company that folded, causing Hans Petersen to go bankrupt. Court documents show that Dowdy had also fired Petersen and that Petersen blamed Dowdy for his disastrous financial situation. Dowdy also lived next door to the home that Petersen once owned.

The second San Diego victim was Ronald Fletcher, his ex-wife’s brother. In that shooting, the victim was able to grab the gun and push it downward to avoid being shot in the head. A small portion of that altercation was captured on video. When police arrived at the scene, they quickly arrested him and booked him into the county jail, according to KUSI News.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWYk-3U_Qu8

In a 2013 interview with ABC News, his ex-wife, Bonnie Fletcher, stated that she couldn’t believe that a man she had been married to for 12 years could be involved in such a crime. She once knew him as a “brilliant” and “wonderful” man who had graduated at the top of his class and later went on to be successful.

Bonnie Fletcher stated that his personality began to take a different form in 2011, after he stopped taking a medication for a head injury that occurred 10 years prior in a skydiving accident. It was then that she began to notice that Hans Petersen had become an out-of-control drunk and violent man who had made her fear for her own life.

In fact, Bonnie had become so fearful of her husband that she confiscated all of the guns in the home and turned over to the local police. She then filed a restraining order and went into hiding. The day Peterson went on his shooting rampage is most likely the day that he had decided to kill his ex-wife. Hans Petersen’s case is described as “something like out of a movie.”

[Photo Credit: YouTube]