Judge Esther Salas's son Daniel Anderl, 20, was 'shot through the heart' and pronounced dead at the scene
Obama-appointed federal judge Esther Salas' 20-year-old son was reportedly "shot through the heart" and died at the spot, while her husband sustained multiple gunshot wounds and is in critical condition after a gunman opened fire at their home on Sunday evening, July 19. Although no motive for the fatal shooting has yet been established, it has emerged that Salas, District Court judge, in North Brunswick, New Jersey, had received multiple death threats previously.
No arrests in the incident have yet been announced and the shooter, who knocked at Salas' door in the guise of a FedEx employee, is believed to be still at large. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), in a tweet, however, said that they were looking for "one subject" in the shooting. Judge Salas — who was believed to be in the basement at the time of the attack — was unharmed, she has now received a security detail from the US Marshals.
Judge Salas' son, Daniel Anderl, a student at Catholic University in Washington, DC, reportedly died at the spot, while her defense attorney husband Mark Anderl, 63, was critically injured and is currently in Robert Wood Johnson Hospital. The mayor of North Brunswick, New Jersey, Francis 'Mac' Womack, who is friends with the Salas family, in a statement, revealed that Daniel was "shot through the heart." He also said that the judge had previously received threats, but there had not been a recent one.
"As a judge, she had threats from time to time, but everyone is saying that recently there had not been any," the mayor told ABC News. "No words can express the sadness and loss we share tonight as a community after senseless shootings of the husband and son of USDC Judge Esther Salas." He added that the investigators are now "trying to get a hard make on the vehicle" to track the suspect. "We commit to do all we can to support the family in this time, as well as all law enforcement agencies involved."
The mayor noted that the Salas family had appeared very close and talked fondly of Mark. "He's a very very exuberant, vibrant, one hundred percent pleasant person," Womack told CNN. "He loves to talk about his wife, and he loves to brag about his son, and how his son would excel in baseball, and how he was doing down in college in Washington ... I'm just very sorry to see him going through this."
The Salas family's neighbors also remarked on the tragedy and said that police officials had been knocking on their doors for any security footage of the area. One woman, while talking to MyCentralJersey, said: "They are still here, not just the police but the FBI, there are agents all over the place. It's unbelievable what is going on."
While another added: "You don't expect anything like this around here. We all know our neighbors, we all greet each other and it's a quiet area."
The shooting comes days after Judge Salas was assigned a case with links to pedophile financier Jeffrey Esptein. However, apart from speculations on the Internet, there are no suggestions that the attack is linked to her work. The 51-year-old presided over multiple high profile cases during her nine years on the federal bench. Judge Salas has also health with cases involving members of the Grape Street Crips, a long-running drug-trafficking network that was taken down in 2015 by the FBI.