Amid climate of intimidation, Esther Salas tells of how son Daniel was killed by lawyer posing as pizza delivery man
A judge whose son was murdered by a disgruntled lawyer posing as a pizza deliveryman voiced anguish that the crime has spawned a spate of copycat threats against other jurists.
Esther Salas, a US district judge for New Jersey, fought back tears on Thursday after being asked to respond to a trend of judges receiving home pizza deliveries with the name of her late son attached as a means of intimidation.
Salas’s son, Daniel, then aged 20, was shot dead on his doorstep on 19 July 2020 by a man who had ostensibly been delivering a pizza to his family’s home. Her husband, Mark, survived critical injuries after being shot multiple times in the attack.
The suspect, Den Hollander, an attorney who was subsequently found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, had earlier appeared in Salas’s court in a case which he lost.
