Roy Den Hollander has been named as the gunman who shot dead a federal judge’s son and injured her husband before killing himself
An anti-feminist lawyer with an ax to grind against women has been named as the gunman who targeted a federal judge’s family in New Jersey on Sunday, killing her 20-year-old son and injuring her husband, before shooting himself in his car.
Roy Den Hollander was named by multiple police sources on Monday as the gunman who shot dead Daniel Anderl, 20, and injured 63-year-old Mark Anderl after arriving at the home they share with Judge Esther Salas in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
Hollander was named first by The Daily Beast, citing unnamed law enforcement sources.
He was dressed as a FedEx employee and opened fire on Daniel when he opened the door. Salas was in the basement at the time and was unharmed.
His body was found in his car on Monday near a campsite in the Catskills, 148 miles from where the attack happened on Sunday.
He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
His motive remains unclear but he was involved in an ongoing case that Salas was presiding over in which he argued that the military’s male-only requirement when drafting soldiers – something that has not happened for over 40 years – is sexist because it unfairly sends men to war and not women.
His client wanted to serve in the military as a teenage girl. Though she is free to enlist if qualified, she sued, claiming the draft rule was sexist.
The case was filed in 2015 and is based entirely on principal rather than actual prejudice or damage in real life.
Judge Salas was presiding over it, and in 2018 she ruled that it should be allowed to move on, potentially to the Supreme Court.
There have been few developments in recent years but in June, she canceled oral arguments without setting a new date for them without explanation. Hollander is believed to have been single.
In the last decade, he has filed lawsuits complaining about Manhattan bars offering ladies nights and anti-violence laws that protect women.
The welcome message on his website reads: ‘Now is the time for all good men to fight for their rights before they have no rights left. Contact Roy to help battle the infringement of Men’s Rights by the Feminists and their fellow sisters the PCers.’
The judge and her family were the targets of an assassination attempt on Sunday evening at their home in North Brunswick Township, New Jersey. The house is pictured on Monday morning
Hollander’s body in his car near this road in the Catskills. He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Police sources say he was targeting Salas’ husband
Daniel (left) was an only child. Hollander was named first by The Daily Beast, citing unnamed law enforcement sources
Hollander was once married to a younger, Russian woman but she left him when they moved to the US.
According to a Jezebel article in 2008, the woman used him for a greencard and for his wealth, then dumped him once they were in the US.
He was regularly interviewed on networks including Fox News and MSNBC where he shared his views and was ridiculed by Stephen Colbert on his show for suing a Manhattan bar for letting women in for free, claiming it was a sexist rule.
Daniel, who was the couple’s only child, is believed to have opened the door to him at around 5pm. He was shot ‘in the heart’ immediately, according to friends of the family. His father was then shot several times when he went to the front door to see what had happened.
Judge Salas had also recently been assigned to a civil financial fraud case tied to Jeffrey Epstein but the case is not thought to be tied to the shooting. It was brought by Deutsche Bank investors who claim the bank made false and misleading statements about its anti-money laundering policies and failed to monitor ‘high-risk’ customers including convicted sex offender billionaire Jeffrey Epstein.
Earlier this month the bank agreed to pay a $150million fine for continuing to work with Epstein after he was convicted of soliciting underage prostitutes in 2008.
Judge Salas also sent TV stars Teresa and Joe Giudice from the Real Housewives of New Jersey to jail for tax evasion and fraud. It’s unclear whether her husband is actively involved in any cases.
Friends say she often made remarks about her job making her a target for attacks but that recently, she was not concerned.
‘As a judge, she had threats from time to time, but everyone is saying that recently there had not been any,’ Francis ‘Mac’ Womack, the mayor of North Brunswick, New Jersey said.
‘She had some high-profile cases, and she was always a little concerned,’ Marion Costanza, who lives three doors down from the family, said.
She and Daniel were close, neighbors said, and she was devastated when he moved away from home to go to college.
‘I think she cried for a week and that’s just in D.C. He was her only child,’ Costanza added. She said Daniel was a good-natured boy who once brought her supplies during a snow storm.
‘There’s no one like them. They’re extremely good-natured. They would do anything for anyone,’ she said.
Anderl was a prosecutor for 10 years before switching to private practice. During his time in the prosecutor’s office, he tried more than 100 cases including 33 murder trials.
Judge Salas is believed to have been in the basement of the home during the shooting and was unharmed in the attack.
Police outside the family’s home in New Jersey on Monday morning. No one has been arrested. Judge Salas is being guarded by the authorities
The family home remained taped off on Monday morning. Neighbors were shocked and saddened by the attack
FBI agents at the home of Esther Salas, 51, an Obama-appointed District Court judge, in North Brunswick, New Jersey, whose son was killed and husband was shot by an unknown shooter
Judge who was the target of an assassination attempt had recently been assigned a case with links to Jeffrey Epstein
Judge Salas was assigned a case involving links to Jeffrey Epstein, pictured
Last week, Judge Salas was assigned a case with links to Jeffrey Epstein.
The case sees investors suing Deutsche Bank and its CEO Christian Sewing, alleging the bank made false and misleading statements before it agreed to pay a $150 million fine for compliance failures linked to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
The lawsuit was filed on Wednesday in the U.S. District Court in Newark, New Jersey, and seeks unspecified damages.
It claims shareholders lost money because of Deutsche Bank’s dealings with Epstein, who was implicated in dozens of sexual abuse cases. He died in custody last August at the age of 66.
New York regulators last week announced Deutsche Bank would pay the fine for ‘significant compliance failures’ over Epstein and two unrelated cases.
Deutsche Bank declined to comment on the lawsuit. Last week, it said the settlement showed ‘how important it is to continue investing in our controls and enhancing our anti-financial crime capabilities’.
The lawsuit also names as defendants Deutsche Bank’s finance chief James von Moltke and former CEO John Cryan.
The named plaintiff is Ali Karimi, who lives in Connecticut, according to court documents.
Epstein, 66, was found hanged in his New York City prison cell in August 2019 after he was arrested on sex trafficking charges, and his death was ruled a suicide.
His former lover Ghislaine Maxwell, 58, was arrested on sex trafficking charges at a remote property in New Hampshire on July 2.
She was denied bail on Tuesday and learned she must stay locked up until her trial next summer after she pleaded not guilty.
Judge Salas is not involved with the current Maxwell case due before court in July 2021.
Another said: 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.’
Crime scene tape could be seen stretching around the perimeter of the family home located in the Hiddlen Lake section of North Brunswick. The street had been closed off to traffic.
Salas staggered their sentences so that one of them could be available to take care of their four children.
In 2017, she barred federal prosecutors from seeking the death penalty against an alleged gang leader charged in several Newark slayings, ruling the man’s intellectual disability made him ineligible for capital punishment.
Salas later sentenced the man, the leader of the Newark Bloods street gang to 45 years in prison.
She has also dealt with cases involving members of the Grape Street Crips according to NJ.com.
The case was connection with a long-running drug-trafficking network that was taken down by the FBI in 2015.
Judge Salas had received death threats in the past but as of Sunday night, authorities have not suggested the shootings are linked to any of her previous cases.
‘As a judge, she had threats from time to time, but everyone is saying that recently there had not been any,’ said Mayor Womack to ABC News, who is friends with the judge and her husband.
‘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,’ she said.
The mayor said investigators are now ‘trying to get a hard make on the vehicle’ to try and 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,’ Womack said.
The mayor noted how close the family appeared to be.
‘He’s a very very exuberant, vibrant, one hundred percent pleasant person,’ Womack said to 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.’
Attorney General Bill Barr released a statement on Monday afternoon expressing his condolences.
‘On behalf of the entire Justice Department, I send my deepest condolences to Judge Salas and her family on the death of their son and wish her husband a swift and complete recovery.
‘This kind of lawless, evil action carried out against a member of the federal judiciary will not be tolerated, and I have ordered the full resources of the FBI and U.S. Marshals Service to investigate the matter,’ he said.
The U.S. Marshals have also been called to provide the judge with a security detail, according to a law enforcement official.
Salas had sat a judge on the U.S. District Court for New Jersey in Newark, for nine years and was the first Hispanic woman to serve on the federal bench in the state.
Before that she spent five years as a magistrate judge, and nine years prior to that as a federal public defender before President Barack Obama nominated her to serve as a District Court Judge in 2010.
The daughter of a Cuban mother and a Mexican father, Salas spent part of her childhood on welfare after a fire destroyed her Union City apartment, according to The Globe.
Salas met her husband when he was working as a prosecutor and she was working as a law school intern.
He spotted her ‘getting fingerprinted’ and came over to talk to her, she told New Jersey Monthly in February 2018. ‘We’ve been inseparable since 1992,’ she said.
Judge Esther Salas is pictured with students in an August 2019 photo posted to Twitter
New Jersey’s politicians were quick to react including New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy
The daughter of a Cuban mother and a Mexican father, Judge Salas is well known in the community and often gives talks to school children and gives tours of the court
New Jersey’s politicians were quick to react.
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said in a statement: ‘Judge Salas and her family are in our thoughts at this time as they cope with this 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.’
So far, police have not announced any arrests or named any suspects, however the FBI tweeted it was looking for ‘one subject’ in the shooting
‘I know Judge Salas and her husband well, and was proud to recommend her to President Obama for nomination to New Jersey’s federal bench.
‘My prayers are with Judge Salas and her family, and that those responsible for this horrendous act are swiftly apprehended and brought to justice,’ said Democratic New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez in a statement.
The FBI, U.S. Marshals, New Jersey State Police along with the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General have been on the scene of the shooting throughout Sunday evening.
‘The FBI is investigating a shooting that took place at the home of Judge Esther Salas in North Brunswick Township, NJ early this evening July 19. We are working closely with our state and local partners and will provide additional updates when available,’ the bureau said in a statement.
So far, police have not announced any arrests or named any suspects, however the FBI tweeted it was looking for ‘one subject’ in the shooting.
Anyone who thinks they may have relevant information should call the FBI in Newark at 973-792-3001.