JUDGE’S SON SHOT DEAD
Husband also hit in attack at NJ home
The 20-year-old son of a prominent New Jersey federal judge was shot dead and her husband was critically wounded in an attack at their home Sunday evening.
The assailant, disguised as a Federal Express driver, gunned down Judge Esther Salas’ son, Daniel Anderl, and shot her 63year-old husband, Mark Anderl, at their North Brunswick home at about 5 p.m., authorities told the New Jersey Globe, a politicalnews site.
Salas was not injured. She is believed to have been in the basement at the time of the attack.
Sources told ABC News that the judge’s son answered the door and was immediately struck.
“He was shot through the heart,” North Brunswick Mayor Francis “Mac” Womack told ABC.
A friend told NJ.com that the young man, a student at Catholic University in Washington, D.C., was planning to go to law school.
“He had his whole future ahead,” the friend, Joe Mauro, said.
Mark Anderl — a well-regarded criminal-defense attorney — was in critical but stable condition Sunday night after undergoing surgery at Robert Wood Johnson Hospital in New Brunswick, the Globe reported.
Salas — who sentenced “Real Housewives of New Jersey” star Teresa Giudice to more than a year in prison for fraud in 2014 — has served as a US District Court judge in Newark for nine years.
She has also presided over several other high-profile cases, including ones involving the leaders of street gangs.
In 2017, she barred federal prosecutors from seeking the death penalty against an alleged gang leader charged in several slayings. She later sentenced him to 45 years in prison.
Recently, she has presided over an ongoing lawsuit by Deutsche Bank investors who claim it failed to monitor “highrisk” customers, including Jeffrey Epstein.
It wasn’t immediately clear who the target of the shooting was — but Salas, 51, had recently received threats, according to the Globe.
The gunman was still at large Sunday night as a massive lawenforcement response got underway, officials said.
The FBI in Newark said it was investigating the shooting and looking for a lone suspect. The agency asked that anyone with relevant information call (973) 792-3001.
Womack said investigators are now “trying to get a hard make on the vehicle” the suspect was driving.
Salas is the first Hispanic woman to serve on the federal bench in New Jersey. She worked as a public defender and a federal magistrate before President Barack Obama nominated her to serve as a district court judge in 2010.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy called the shooting “a senseless act.”
“This tragedy is our latest reminder that gun violence remains a crisis in our country and that our work to make every community safer isn’t done,” Murphy said in a statement.