The U.S. Marshals Service confirmed that a man has died after injuring his own throat inside a Federal Courthouse on Monday afternoon in downtown Fargo, North Dakota.
North Dakota U.S. Marshal Dallas Carlson told KVRR Local News that the suicide occurred after a jury returned a partial guilty verdict against the man, 55-year-old Jeffrey Ferris. (RELATED: ‘You’ve Got A Long Life Left’: Video Shows Officers Saving Suicidal Student Atop Parking Garage)
Ferris was on trial for an incident that occurred in April 2020 on the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation, northern North Dakota, according to KVLY-TV. Court records obtained by the outlet claim that Ferris drove a jeep towards multiple children in the reservation and nearly struck them. Ferris also allegedly attacked an individual with a handgun, the records state.
Following the incident, Ferris was charged with “assault with a deadly weapon, reckless endangerment, terrorizing, and using a firearm in a violent felony,” KVLY-TV reported.
After the jury in his trial returned the partial guilty verdict Monday afternoon, Ferris “produced an edge weapon and cut his throat,” Carlson told KVRR Local News.
Not the same courtroom as the one discussed in the story (Photo by Spencer Weiner-Pool/Getty Images)
The incident occurred after the jury left the courtroom, according to Carlson. U.S. District Judge Peter Welte, courtroom staff, and others present reportedly witnessed the suicide.
One witness told the KVLY-TV crew who were present on the scene that Ferris “apparently” wounded himself in the neck with an object that “could have been a pen or plastic shank.”
“The guy turned around and you could see the inside of his neck. He had slit his neck with some object … don’t know if it was plastic or what it was. One of the other attorneys in there said it looked like a pen, but his attorney said it looked like a scalpel,” the witness told the outlet.
U.S. Marshals had to wrestle Ferris to the floor after his suicide attempt, the outlet reported.
The incident is under investigation by the U.S. Marshal Service and the FBI, KVRR Local News reported.