SALT LAKE CITY — A defendant died after being shot by a U.S. marshal Monday during an attack on a trial witness in a federal courthouse in Salt Lake City, the FBI said.

Siale Angilau, 25, died at a hospital after he was shot in the chest as he rushed the witness with a pen in an “aggressive, threatening manner,” the FBI said in a news release.

Angilau was shot several times in front of a jury that had been selected Friday.

Angilau was one of 17 people named in a 29-count racketeering indictment filed in 2010 accusing “Tongan Crip” gang members of assault, conspiracy, robbery and weapons offenses.

Under standard procedures, Angilau was not restrained in the courtroom, the FBI said.

Perry Cardwell, who was in the courtroom with his adult daughter, said Angilau was shot several times as he lunged toward the witness stand.

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At least six shots were fired, he said.

The witness, who was not injured, appeared to be in his mid-20s and was testifying about gang initiation, Cardwell said. The person was not identified.

Cardwell and his daughter were in court to support his mother, Sandra Keyser, who was punched in the face during a holdup in 2002 and was scheduled to testify.

“It was kind of traumatizing,” Sara Jacobson, Cardwell’s daughter, said of the shooting.

Prosecutors said Angilau robbed convenience stores and assaulted clerks in Salt Lake City on five occasions from 2002 to 2007. A clerk was shot in the final robbery, according to the indictment.


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