The moment he heard the word “guilty,” it was all over for Jeffrey Sahl Ferris. The best he could hope for was spending the next seven years in a cage. Before he could be sentenced by the judge following his conviction, he sentenced himself to death, the FBI relates.
Guilty of reckless endangerment
The city of Fargo sprawls across the border between North Dakota and Minneapolis, Ferris was inside the federal courthouse on the North Dakota side. He had just been found guilty on charges of “reckless endangerment, terrorizing and use of a firearm.”
All of it was part of an incident which happened in April of 2020 on the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation, FBI agents explain, from where they hang out on the Minneapolis side of Fargo.
As soon as the jury filed out of the courtroom after announcing the guilty verdict, the former emergency medical technician grabbed an “easily concealable instrument” to take his own life,” the FBI states. He was not a member of the “Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians but is a descendant of tribal members.”
The 55-year-old defendant “drove a Jeep toward seven children on the reservation in north-central North Dakota in April 2020, nearly hitting them.” His sentence could have been worse.
The same jury which convicted him also found him “not guilty of eight counts of assault with a dangerous weapon,” FBI official Kevin Smith confirms. Now they will be investigating how he got his weapon.
“The FBI’s responsibility in this investigation is to determine whether there was any violation of federal criminal laws.” If they find any irregularities, “the US Attorney’s Office for the District of North Dakota would handle the matter.”
BREAKING: The U.S. Marshals confirm one person is dead after an incident at the Federal Courthouse in downtown Fargo this afternoon. A witness tells VNL during his sentencing hearing, the male defendant stood up & slit his throat w/ what looked like a pen or a plastic shank. pic.twitter.com/azj0C3BLPU
— Bailey Hurley (@BaileyHurleyVNL) May 17, 2021
Review of security procedures
At the Fargo courthouse, “a review of security procedures” is underway. One witness present in the courtroom reports that Ferris, who formerly lived in Belcourt, began “fidgeting with his neck” as he stood up after the guilty verdict came in.
His attorney caught the motion out of the corner of his eye and inquired, “What the hell are you doing?” The unidentified witness continued, “the guy turned around, and you could see the inside of his neck. He had slit his neck with some object.” Speculation has been rampant as to what he may have got his hands on.
Whatever he used, the results were messy. The cleaning staff is going to have nightmares getting all the blood out of the carpet. And off the walls. “There was blood all over the walls in the courtroom, and the marshals had wrestled him to the floor.
You could hear him screaming, ‘I can’t breathe.'” He was guilty of his own murder but didn’t seem to realize just how drastic what he had done really was.
Agent Smith admits they’re just as guilty as he is for allowing him to get his hands on a weapon, no matter what it was. A paper clip or ballpoint pen are likely suspects, both are common in a courtroom but someone’s supposed to be watching the defendant.
“I can’t remember the last time an event like this happened where somebody was able to smuggle some contraband into a federal courtroom and die of a self-inflicted wound.” The FBI, he insists, will keep digging until everyone forgets it happened. “Very, very, very odd. Very unusual. We will take our time to get to the bottom of it.”
