A US judge has broken her silence after her son was killed and her husband injured during a shooting in their home last month.
Judge Esther Salas released a nine-minute video on YouTube on Monday detailing the moment a gunman opened fire on her son Daniel Anderl and husband Mark Anderl.
The family were celebrating Daniel's 20th birthday during the weekend when the suspected gunman Roy Den Hollander - who was a men's rights activist lawyer - targeted their New Jersey home on July 19.
In her video, Salas says they had begun cleaning their house after Daniel's birthday, which was a "glorious" weekend "filled with love, laughter and smiles".
"Daniel and I went downstairs to the basement and we were chatting, as we always do. And Daniel said 'Mum, let's keep talking. I love talking to you, Mum'. It was at that exact moment that the doorbell rang, and Daniel looked at me and said, 'Who is that?'.
"Before I could say a word, he sprinted upstairs. Within seconds I heard the sound of bullets and someone screaming 'No!'"
Den Hollander had arrived at their house posing as a FedEx mail deliverer when he opened fire.
The shooter was later found dead two hours north of Salas' home. He targeted the family because he was reportedly upset with Salas over her handling of a court case challenging the male-only military draft.
Salas says Daniel protected his father and took the shooter's first bullet directly to his chest.
Mark was then seriously wounded after being shot three times. One bullet entered his abdomen, another his right chest and the third his right forearm.
"While my husband is still in the hospital recovering from multiple surgeries, we are living every parent's worst nightmare - making preparations to bury our only child, Daniel."
Salas believes judges should be given greater privacy protection from the public since personal information on them can be obtained too easily.
"In my case, the monster knew where I lived and what church we attended and had a complete dossier on me and my family. At the moment, there is nothing we can do to stop it and that is unacceptable," she says.
"My son's death cannot be in vain, which is why I am begging those in power to do something to help my brothers and sisters on the bench."
She says she doesn't know the best way to protect judges' privacy, but believes there needs to be a national dialogue to help solve the problem.
The US Marshals Service, which protects over 2700 judges throughout the country, says threats towards judges have grown significantly over the past five years, CNN reports. Since 2016, threats and inappropriate comments made to them nearly doubled to 4500 last year.
