A gunman has shot and killed the 20-year-old son of US federal judge Esther Salas and also injured her husband at the family home, a state’s chief district judge said.
The shootings occurred at the New Jersey home of Judge Salas, Chief District Judge Freda Wolfson told The Associated Press.
Her husband, defense lawyer Mark Anderl, was injured, Wolfson said.
The gunman posed as a delivery driver, according to a judiciary official who wasn’t authorised to comment and spoke anonymously to the AP.
They said Salas was in the basement at the time and wasn’t injured and her husband is recovering from surgery.
The perpetrator, believed to be a lone gunman, was not in custody, the official said.
The FBI tweeted last night that it’s looking for one suspect in the shootings.
Salas, seated in Newark, was nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed in 2011.
Salas has presided over an ongoing lawsuit brought by Deutsche Bank investors who claim the company made false and misleading statements about its anti-money laundering policies and failed to monitor “high-risk” customers including convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
She served as a US Magistrate Judge in New Jersey, after working as an assistant public defender for several years.
Her highest-profile case in recent years was the financial fraud case involving husband-and-wife “Real Housewives of New Jersey” reality TV stars Teresa and Joe Giudice, whom Salas sentenced to prison for crimes including bankruptcy fraud and tax evasion.
Salas staggered their sentences so that one of them could be available to take care of their four children.
Esther Salas, born in 1968, is the first Hispanic woman to serve as a United States Magistrate Judge in the District of New Jersey, and also the first to serve as a United States District Judge in the District of New Jersey.
AFP