Authorities believe the man suspected of shooting the son and husband of U.S. District Court Judge Esther Salas in their home Sunday in North Brunswick, New Jersey was an attorney who harbored deeply misogynistic beliefs, according to reports.
Law enforcement has identified the suspect as Roy Den Hollander, the Daily Beast first reported Monday. The New York Times and New Jersey Globe confirmed the suspect’s identity.
The suspect entered the judge’s home dressed as a FedEx delivery worker, according to the New Jersey Globe. Salas’ son, 20-year-old Daniel Anderl, was fatally shot, while her husband, criminal defense attorney Mark Anderl, is currently hospitalized in critical but stable condition.
Salas, an Obama-appointed judge who is also the first Latina on the District Court of New Jersey, was not hurt. The New Jersey Globe reported that the judge had been receiving threats.
The FBI announced late Sunday night that the agency had opened an investigation into the shooting. The FBI did not respond to TPM’s requests for comment.
“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,” Attorney General Bill Barr said in a statement on Monday. “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.”
Den Hollander had a case pending before Salas that sought to challenge the male-only Army draft, according to the New York Times.
In 2008, Fox News host Neil Cavuto interviewed Den Hollander regarding his lawsuit against Columbia University for offering a women’s studies program “but not a men’s studies program.”
During his interview with Cavuto, Den Hollander called for the elimination of what he called “feminazi, feminist women’s studies programs and bring back varsity sports” and argued that universities would “do a lot better” if they did so. Hollander also claimed that if men take a women’s studies course, “the girls in the class are basically going to walk all over them in their stiletto heels” and that he “begins to suspect something” every time women speak up.
Earlier in 2008, Den Hollander sued the federal government over the Violence Against Women Act, which he claimed that some aspects of are unconstitutional, according to the Times. But that’s not all.
Den Hollander also filed a class-action lawsuit against prominent Manhattan nightclubs the year before, arguing that they discriminate against men by hosting ladies’ nights offering women free or reduced admission. The lawsuit said that ladies’ nights at nightclubs violate the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection under the law, according to the Times.
According to an archive of his now-defunct website, Den Hollander’s resume includes a stint as a political producer at WABC TV News; spending time in Russia as a lawyer providing counsel on legal and business issues and managing a law firm there that delivered “intelligence and security in the former Soviet Union; and taking “hip-hop classes and martial arts for those who give me a hard time about hip-hop.”
“Judge Salas and her family are in our thoughts at this time as they cope with this senseless act,” New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) said in a statement on Sunday. “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.”
