Authorities believe an attorney who was found dead in New York on Monday was the shooter at US District Judge Esther Salas’ home, which left her son dead and husband critically injured a day earlier.
What We Know:
- The FBI identified Roy Den Hollander as the “primary subject” in the shooting and announced that he was found dead, the US Attorney’s office said in a statement. Two law enforcement sources told CNN that the suspect died of what is believed to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
- Regarding the incident with Salas’ son, it was initially reported that the gunman, now believed to be Den Hollander, appeared to be wearing a FedEx uniform. Preliminary indications are that the husband answered the door and was shot multiple times; the son came running to the door and was shot as well before the gunman fled. A FedEx package addressed to Salas was found by officials in the vehicle associated with the suspect.
- Den Hollander was a lawyer who once argued a case before Salas, according to court records. In the case, he argued that it was unconstitutional for women not to be subject to the military draft. Salas did not throw out the suit, as many of Den Hollander’s previous cases had been. She instead allowed the lawsuit to proceed through the court system. However, Den Hollander exited the case in June 2019, handing it over to a different team of lawyers because he was terminally ill.
- Den Hollander had previously announced on a GoFundMe page, titled “Cancer knocks you down & doctors finish you off,” that he was being treated for an apparent serious cancer condition. In part of a collection posted online that resembled an early draft of a memoir, Den Hollander wrote about being treated recently for cancer, and wanting to use the rest of his time to “wrap up his affairs”.
- One senior law enforcement official said authorities are looking into a file or envelope that was meant for Judge Salas possibly found near Den Hollander’s body. Some of the information in the packet may have contained details about a prominent men’s rights figure in California who was killed on July 11, and authorities are looking into whether Den Hollander could be connected in any way to the killing.
- According to law enforcement sources, investigators found a file with details on Judge Salas and her family inside Den Hollander’s vehicle. Investigators also found material about Judge Janet DiFiore, the chief judge of the state of New York. The FBI briefed DiFiore of the information on her that had been found in the suspect’s car.
- Den Hollander was a notoriously anti-feminist men’s rights attorney, whose spiteful website and book condemned women in rage-filled terms. In one of his books, he specifically blasted Salas by name as “lazy and incompetent” and said her only accomplishment was being a high school cheerleader. In more than 2,000 pages of often misogynistic, racist writings, Den Hollander criticized Salas’ life story of being abandoned by her father and raised by her poor mother as “the usual effort to blame a man and turn someone into supergirl”. According to his website, Den Hollander described himself as an “anti-feminist” lawyer who defends “men’s rights”.
- Along with the attacks on Salas, Den Hollander’s writings also went after President Barack Obama (who he said has an “obsession to turn America into a banana republic”), Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor (who he claimed was “angry that nobody had invited her to her high school senior prom”), Hillary Clinton (whose supporters were “teary-eyed, sad-sack, PC loonies watching their power of intolerance go down the drain”), and an Obama appointee (whom he described as part of “that Orwellian party of feminists, ethnics, Muslims, illegals and queers who think they are superior to everyone else, especially white males”).
- Den Hollander was best known previously for unsuccessful lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of “ladies night” promotions at bars and nightclubs. Another lawsuit argued night clubs were violating human rights by charging men hundreds of dollars for bottle service. In 2008, he unsuccessfully sued Columbia University for providing women’s studies classes, saying they were “a bastion of bigotry against men.”
- Den Hollander also claims to have been a volunteer for the Trump presidential campaign. “I did volunteer work for Trump’s campaign because I hate PC-Feminism more than I hate America,” he writes. “If I had hated America more, I would have worked for Hillary’s campaign.” Additionally, in August 2016, Den Hollander filed a lawsuit against seven prominent political journalists, alleging that they were part of a racketeering scheme against Trump.
The motive for the shooting hasn’t been released nor what led authorities to the location in Rockland, New York where Den Hollander’s body was found, a two-hour drive from the scene of the crime.
