The Grudge
Dateline NBC
This episode of Dateline NBC features an emotional and powerful conversation between host Andrea Canning and U.S. District Court Judge Esthe
Key takeaways
- The shooter targeted Judge Esther Salas in retaliation for her rulings, underscoring the real-world threats faced by public officials.
Main topics
- Targeted violence against federal judges
- Judicial security reform
Notable quotes
"You know, maybe we can't stop every bad thing from happening to any federal judge in the future, but we can make it darn hard for them to track us down."
Conclusion
Judge Esther Salas' resilience in the face of unimaginable loss has transformed
Transcript preview
Speaker 2 (0:00) Hi, I'm Kate Snow, NBC News anchor and host of the NBC News podcast, The Drink. This month, I'm sitting down with actor, writer, producer, Brendan Hunt. Most of you know him as Coach Beard from Ted Lasso, but there is so much more to his story. We sit down, we talk about all of it, from his bumpy upbringing to his years in improv comedy and how a Hollywood rejection opened the door to co-creating Ted Lasso. It's an open, funny conversation about perseverance, creativity, and the winding road that brought him right here. We hope you'll join us for the drink. Listen and follow wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 8 (0:38) Tonight on Dateline. She and her son Danny were in the basement of their home when the doorbell rang. Danny bounded up the steps to answer the door and then the shots rang out. Speaker 8 (0:53) Danny was hit. Mark was shot in the abdomen. Speaker 6 (0:56) I saw my son holding his chest. I knew he wasn't going to make it. Speaker 3 (1:02) Why Daniel, out of all people, one of the sweetest kids I've ever met. Speaker 8 (1:07) Her husband was rushed to the emergency room for surgery. I was just in total shock. Speaker 4 (1:14) You get a call that there's been another murder. Speaker 1 (1:16) Correct. A man knocked on the door, said, are you Mark Angelucci? And he said, yes, and then just started shooting. We weren't expecting to link up a murder in California Speaker 8 (1:27) to the attack here in New Jersey. Speaker 3 (1:29) I just thought, this is crazy. Nobody's safe. Speaker 7 (1:32) A mother's devastating pain and staggering realization. I Speaker 6 (1:37) had a feeling that the person probably wanted me. It's personal. This was revenge. Speaker 7 (1:41) Most assuredly, yes. Speaker 6 (1:43) That someone would come to my door and take my only child. It's unfathomable. Speaker 7 (1:49) I'm Lester Holt, and this is Dateline. This is Andrea Canning with The Grudge. Speaker 4 (2:10) Summer 2020. In the throes of Speaker 2 (2:12) a pandemic, a killer had devised the perfect plan for murder. Our guard was down because that bell was ringing so often. Home deliveries had become a way of life. Some of these packages Speaker 6 (2:27) were being delivered by people out of their own cars. Speaker 4 (2:31) So there was no cause for alarm when on a lazy Sunday afternoon, Speaker 2 (2:35) a man rang the doorbell at the home of a prominent family in North Brunswick, New Jersey. And I remember my son looking at me and going, who's that? They had no idea. Evil was waiting on the other side. I saw my son Speaker 6 (2:50) lying perpendicular to the door, holding his chest. And then I remember just screaming. On a Speaker 4 (3:03) warm summer Friday evening, Esther Salas, her husband Mark Andrel, and their Speaker 2 (3:07) son Daniel were celebrating, in a socially distant way, Daniel's 20th birthday. We rented a tent in the backyard and Speaker 6 (3:14) set up this real long table, and a few of his friends from Catholic University came. It was a glorious weekend. Daniel was just, he was jumping Speaker 2 (3:22) out of his skin. He was so excited. Daniel and his friends continued the celebration the next day with a trip to the beach. By Speaker 4 (3:29) Sunday afternoon, everyone had gone home. It was July 19th, around 5 p.m. Mother and son were cleaning up the basement and sharing a special, albeit fleeting, moment. Speaker 6 (3:40) I think he was swinging a wiffle bat or something, and I remember him saying, let's keep talking, Mom. I love talking to you, Mom. And, Speaker 2 (3:50) uh... At that exact second, the doorbell rang. Curious, Daniel shot up the stairs to answer the door. The next thing I heard were these, this Speaker 6 (4:00) bang, this loud sound that I had never heard before. And I hear Mark say, no. And then I hear bang, bang, bang. And I just, I just screamed, what is happening? And I ran up the stairs. What Speaker 4 (4:15) do you, what do you Speaker 6 (4:15) think is, do you have any idea? No. The only thing I could think of is that it was a bomb. And I was preparing myself as I'm running up the stairs to see like body parts everywhere. But what I saw was just as worse as anything that I had imagined. Speaker 4 (4:33) She saw Daniel lying on the floor by the front door. Her Speaker 2 (4:37) husband, Mark, was crawling on the porch, trying to Speaker 4 (4:39) catch a glimpse of the attacker's license plate as he Speaker 6 (4:42) drove away. I remember Mark crawling back, and we were both just screaming, Danny, hold on, hold on. I heard him moaning softly, and I actually lifted his shirt. and saw the Speaker 4 (4:58) bullet Speaker 6 (4:58) hole. Did Speaker 4 (4:59) you say anything to him knowing that this might be the last time that you would be with him? Speaker 6 (5:05) No, no, I just kept saying, hold on, honey, hold on. And I knew he was such a fighter, that there was a part of me that, you know, if anyone could do it, Daniel will. Mark had Speaker 2 (5:17) been shot, too, multiple times. I know Mark was screaming, call 911. Patrol officers with the North Brunswick Police Department arrived within minutes. Speaker 4 (5:27) Deputy Chief Joseph Battaglia was at a family picnic when he got the call. In North Brunswick, shootings are rare, so this one especially caught him by surprise. It was at the home of a federal judge. What details are you given about what has happened at this house? Speaker 5 (5:43) They told me that there was two individuals were shot, and it was the house of Judge Salas. Speaker 4 (5:48) Do you know right away who Judge Salas is? Speaker 5 (5:50) Yes. I'm familiar with the name, yes. Speaker 4 (5:53) Judge Esther Salas was the first Latina federal judge to preside in New Jersey, appointed by President Obama in 2011. Battaglia quickly learned it was Salas' husband Mark, a defense attorney, and their son Daniel who'd been shot. When Speaker 5 (6:09) the first responding officers arrived, Daniel had a pulse and he was breathing. They administered basic first aid. Speaker 4 (6:15) What condition was Mark in? Speaker 5 (6:16) Surprisingly, Mark was talking and he was sitting up and he was tending to Daniel. Speaker 4 (6:22) EMTs raced Mark and Daniel to the hospital. Officers searched the area. Speaker 5 (6:27) They secured the home, they secured the perimeter, and then they set up a canvas of the area. Speaker 4 (6:32) Do they find anything that's of significance? Speaker 5 (6:35) We spoke to the neighbor next door who had actually very good information. Said he saw an individual, white male, tall, thin, wearing a mask, had a FedEx messenger bag. Got into a silver or blue Nissan Sentra and fled the area. Speaker 4 (6:52) Based on eyewitness accounts, the deputy chief felt confident the shooter had left the area. Speaker 5 (6:57) Our concern was where was he going next, being that this was a federal court judge. Were those his targets? Speaker 4 (7:02) More federal judges? Yes. So you're thinking maybe this guy has a hit list of some kind? Speaker 5 (7:07) Yes. Speaker 4 (7:08) But Taglia's gut was telling him the judge was the intended target, but he couldn't be sure. Speaker 5 (7:13) Because Mark also was a defense attorney who had probably made some, you know, possibly some enemies over the years. He called in the cavalry. FBI, ATF, state police, county prosecutors, U.S. Marshals, U.S. Attorney's Office, our agency. This Speaker 4 (7:31) was serious. It was a large Speaker 5 (7:32) operation, yes. Speaker 4 (7:33) The largest police operation he'd ever been a part of. And they were all worried about the same thing. Would Speaker 2 (7:40) the shooter strike again? The clock was ticking. When Speaker 6 (7:47) we come back. I kept asking, how's my son? How's my son? For Judge Salas, pure agony. Speaker 7 (7:55) I remember just screaming, screaming. While investigators turned to her husband for what could be critical clues. Speaker 8 (8:05) He couldn't actually speak, but he was able to tap out certain words to talk about what he saw. Speaker 2 (8:24) As law enforcement hunted the shooter, a police officer raced federal judge Esther Salas to the ER. Her husband and son were fighting for their lives. Daniel, her Speaker 4 (8:35) only child, had been shot in the chest. What do you Speaker 6 (8:38) learn Speaker 4 (8:38) when you get to the Speaker 6 (8:39) hospital? You know, I knew it was bad because I kept asking, how's my son? How's my son? Somebody tell me something. And nobody was saying anything, and the doctors came in. and broke the news to me that he didn't make it. And I remember just screaming, screaming and shaking one poor doctor. I felt so bad. Her son was Speaker 4 (9:04) gone, and she had no idea what was happening with Speaker 2 (9:07) her husband. She shouted to anyone who Speaker 4 (9:09) would Speaker 2 (9:10) listen. Can someone tell me about Mark? I need to know if I'm planning one funeral or two. As she waited for Speaker 6 (9:17) an answer... It just became way too much for me to deal with, and I remember literally passing out. Speaker 4 (9:25) When she came to, she learned Mark was in surgery. A bullet had ripped through his liver and intestines. The thought of also losing her husband was too much to bear. Speaker 4 (9:36) They had met 28 years earlier in the prosecutor's office. She was an intern. He was working homicide. Speaker 6 (9:43) I think it was love at first sight for us. And we've been inseparable since 1992. And he's just the love of my life. And now the life they Speaker 4 (9:55) had built together flashed before her eyes. A deeply religious woman, she focused on praying for her husband. Whoever did Speaker 2 (10:02) this was out there. That has to be absolutely terrifying. It was, but you know, it was the last thing I was thinking Speaker 6 (10:10) about at that point. Speaker 4 (10:11) But back at the crime scene where FBI Special Agent Joe Denahan had now taken the lead on the case, he thought about little else. The Speaker 8 (10:19) first thing that ran through my mind was, we are going to be having to gear up for a pretty serious manhunt. The subject was in the wind. We knew there could be additional threats to public safety. Speaker 4 (10:29) His team fanned out, interviewing witnesses and gathering evidence. Were you able to find anything as far as physical evidence at the scene? Speaker 8 (10:38) We attempted to get prints and DNA from the door frame, the door jam, the doorbell, and the doorknobs, which we rushed to Quantico. Speaker 4 (10:47) Along with the bullets and casings from a .380 handgun, they were recovered in the judge's front hallway. He also sent agents to the hospital hoping to interview Mark, who'd seen the shooter up close. But when they arrived, Mark was being prepped for his second surgery. So he's got