Orange County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Ferguson texted his staff on August 3rd telling his staff that he would miss the next day of work because he had just shot his wife, USA Today reports. “I just lost it. I just shot my wife. I won’t be in tomorrow. I will be in custody. I’m so sorry,” Ferguson texted his staff, according to documents presented in his arraignment Friday.
Freed on $1 million bail, court officers are looking for additional public safety guarantees after officers found 47 firearms and more than 20,000 rounds of ammunition in his Anaheim home. All the guns were properly registered–including the gun that Ferguson used to shoot his wife in a drunken rage–but one gun registered to Ferguson was missing.
Ferguson shot his wife after he pantimimed shooting her using his fingers and she reported said something like, “Why don’t you point a real gun at me?” to her drunken husband. He pulled a gun from an ankle holster and shot her, killing her.