*U.S. District Judge Esther Salas has addressed the tragic shooting of her 20-year-old son, who was gunned down at the family home last month.
Salas’ husband Mark Anderl was also wounded in the shooting by Roy Den Hollander, who reportedly committed suicide after the ambush.
The judge has released a nine-minute video statement addressing the attack.
In the clip, she calls for greater protections for her “brothers and sisters on the bench” amid a surge in violent threats made against federal court officials, Complex reports.
“We are living every parent’s worst nightmare,” Salas said. “Making preparations to bury our only child, Daniel. My family has experienced a pain that no one should ever have to endure. I am here asking everyone to help me ensure that no one ever has to experience this kind of pain. We may not be able to stop something like from happening again but we can make it hard for those who target us to track us down.”
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Federal Judge Esther Salas is speaking out for the first time 2 weeks after a gunman shot and killed her son and left her husband seriously injured at their New Jersey home on July 19 pic.twitter.com/UbfWzOSb3A
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Hollander was a self-described anti-feminist lawyer and pro-male activist. He was on a crusade to end the U.S. Military’s male-only draft registration system.
He reportedly flooded the courts with frivolous lawsuits. In one of his most recent cases, he slammed Judge Salas, whom he described in a self-published, 1,700-page book as “a lazy and incompetent Latina judge appointed by Obama.”
Salas reportedly presided over a case related to the Selective Service System in New Jersey federal court that Hollander had previously been involved in.
Investigators have not disclosed a motive in his attack at the judge’s home.
Salas was not injured in the shooting
“As federal judges, we understand that our decisions will be scrutinized and some may disagree strongly with our rulings,” Salas said in the newly released video. “We know that our job requires us to make tough calls and sometimes those calls can leave people angry and upset. That comes with the territory and we accept that. But what we can’t accept is when we are forced to live in fear for our lives because personal information like our home addresses can easily be obtained by anyone seeking to do us or our families harm.”
See her full statement via the video above.
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