The New Jersey federal judge who lost her son in a shooting said the alleged gunman targeted her because she was a Latina woman who dared to have a successful career.
Judge Esther Salas, whose 20-year-old son Daniel died after a gunman disguised himself as a FedEx delivery driver, spoke out for the first time since the shooting in an interview with Good Morning America. She revealed that the FBI told her that the suspected gunman, “anti-feminist” attorney Roy Den Hollander, targeted her family because he despised that a Latina woman was able to become a federal judge.
“My husband and I sat for an FBI debriefing. I know that he hated me because I was a woman. He hated me because I was Latina. And that was the source of hate. That was, you know, what I had done — was I had the nerve to become a judge,” Salas said.
Den Hollander was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound shortly after he was identified as the main suspect in the shooting. Salas’s husband, who was also shot three times during the attack, survived the attack after a lengthy stay in the hospital.
Since the shooting, Salas has been working to change the laws around what personal information about judges is released to the public. She said that she is working to make sure that the families of other judges cannot be targeted by eliminating the personal identifiable information about judges that is on the internet.
Salas said that removing this personal information and providing judges with home security systems could be key in protecting other judges, including herself. She confirmed that she would be returning to the bench to continue serving in her lifetime appointment.
“This man took the most important thing in my life. I can’t let him take anything else. I know that I’m going to strive every morning to be the best person that I can be. My son gave his life for his father and I. I have to look at that and say, what a gift,” she said. “I can’t squander it.”
