A North Dakota man who killed himself in a courtroom upon being convicted was facing a minimum of seven years in prison, FBI officials said.

Jeffrey Sahl Ferris, who slashed his throat Monday inside the federal courthouse in Fargo, had been found guilty of reckless endangerment, terrorizing and use of a firearm in relation to a felony crime of violence in an April 2020 incident at the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation, FBI officials in Minneapolis said in a statement.

Ferris grabbed an “easily concealable instrument” to take his own life after being convicted by a jury that had left the courtroom, according to FBI officials.

Ferris, a former emergency medical technician, was not a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians but is a descendant of tribal members, Native News Online reported.

Ferris, 55, allegedly drove a Jeep toward seven children on the reservation in north-central North Dakota in April 2020, nearly hitting them. A jury found him not guilty of eight counts of assault with a dangerous weapon, FBI officials confirmed Tuesday while saying an investigation into the incident was ongoing.

“The FBI’s responsibility in this investigation is to determine whether there was any violation of federal criminal laws,” spokesman Kevin Smith said in a statement.

If violations are found, the US Attorney’s Office for the District of North Dakota would handle the matter, Smith said. A review of security procedures at the Fargo courthouse is also underway, Smith said.

A witness said Ferris, who lived in Belcourt, started “fidgeting with his neck” while standing up after the guilty verdict was read, The Forum reported.

“His attorney asked him, ‘What the hell are you doing?’” the woman, who asked not to be identified, told WDAY News. “And the guy turned around, and you could see the inside of his neck. He had slit his neck with some object. 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.’”

Prior to the release of the FBI’s statement, Smith told The Forum investigators were trying to determine how Ferris — whose identity was not immediately released by authorities — got the weapon into court.

“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,” Smith told the newspaper. “Very, very, very odd. Very unusual. We will take our time to get to the bottom of it.”

Ferris’ trial was the only proceeding scheduled for last week in Fargo’s federal court, The Forum reported.

North Dakota US Marshal Dallas Carlson told KVRR the man identified in reports as Ferris “produced an edge weapon” and cut his throat as US District Judge Peter Welte and other court officials looked on.