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Officer In Officer-Involved Shooting Identified, Charges Filed

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- The officer involved in the officer-involved shooting has been identified and the man who was shot has been charged in a crime from earlier that day.

Police say Officer Larry Peterson began his career with Minneapolis in April of 1988. He served 10 years in the Third Precinct as a patrol officer and completed a career enrichment in the Juvenile Unit.

He was transferred to the Public Housing Unit in 1998 until July of 2011, when the unit was decommissioned. He's since worked in the Fifth Precinct as a patrol officer on daywatch.

Peterson was the responding officer to a report of an assault from Robert Yellow Wolf's former girlfriend. Police say she called 911 after he was accosting her near the intersection of Franklin Avenue East and Lyndale Avenue South in Minneapolis.

When Peterson arrived on scene, Yellow Wolf allegedly produced a knife and began threatening Peterson with it.

Peterson called for assistance and gave verbal commands for Yellow Wolf to drop the knife. He refused and Peterson began to retreat from him, across two lanes of traffic.

Yellow Wolf followed Peterson and continued to refuse to follow orders, so Peterson shot him, according to police.

Yellow Wolf has been charged with second-degree assault for a crime that took place about 15 minutes before the shooting. Police say he is accused of stabbing a man near Loring Park, after accusing the man of taking his territory for panhandling.

Police say he slashed the man multiple times on the forehead with a knife.

Yellow Wolf's alleged assault on his former girlfriend and his attack on Officer Peterson are being considered for criminal charges.

Following his treatment at Hennepin County Medical Center, Yellow Wolf will be booked into the Hennepin County Jail. Yellow Wolf has an extensive criminal history with 36 arrests in Minneapolis alone, since 2004. Those arrests included several assaults.

He also has a felony criminal history in four other states and has spent time in prison in both North Dakota and Minnesota.

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