danny bounded up the steps to answer the door. shots rang out. danny was hit. mark was shot in the abdomen. >> i saw my son holding his chest. i knew he wasn't going to make it. >> one of the sweetest kids i've ever met. >> her husband was rushed to the emergency room for surgery. i was in total shock. >> you get to call there's been another murder. >> correct. the man knocked on the door and said are you data and said yes and started shooting. >> we weren't expecting to link a murder in california to this attack. >> i thought this is crazy. nobody is safe. >> i had a feeling they wanted me. >> this was revenge. >> that someone would come to my door and take my only child is unfathomable. hello, and welcome to dateline. esther salas was a proud mother. she and her husband just celebrated their son's birthday. as festivities wrapped up, they shared a beautiful moment with love. then hate to shattered everything. investigators questioned if the attack was part of some bigger plot and raced to unlock the mystery before the killer could strike again. here is the grudge. summer 2020, in the throes of a pandemic. a killer had devised the perfect plan for murder. >> our guard was down because the bell was ringing so often. >> there was no cause for alarm when on a sunday afternoon, a man rang the doorbell at the home of a prominent family in north brunswick, new jersey. >> i remember my son looking at me and saying who's that? >> they had no idea eva was waiting on the other side. >> a semi son lying perpendicular to the door holding his chest. i remember just screaming. >> in a warm friday evening, esther salas, and her husband and her son were celebrating. daniel's 20th birthday. >> we rented a tent and set up this table and a few of his friends came. it was a glorious weekend. daniel was jumping out of his skin he was so excited. >> daniel and his friends considered the celebration the next day. by sunday afternoon, everyone had gone home. it was july 19 around 5:00 p.m. mother and son were cleaning the basement and sharing a special albeit fleeting moment. >> i think he was swinging a wiffle bat or something and i remember saying let's keep talking, mom. i love talking to you, mom. at that exact second the doorbell rang. >> curious, daniel shut up the stairs to answer the door. >> the next thing i heard was bang. this loud sound i'd never heard before. and i hear saying no. then i hear bang, bang, bang. i screamed what is happening? i ran up the stairs. >> do you have any idea at all? >> no. the only thing i could think of is it was a bomb. i'm preparing myself as i run up the stairs to see body parts everywhere, but what i saw was worse is anything i had imagined. >> she saw daniel lying on the floor by the front door. her husband was crawling on the porch trying to catch a glimpse of the license plate as he drove away. >> i remember marc crawling back and we were both screaming, dna, hold on. i heard him moaning softly. i lifted his shirt and saw the bullet hole. >> did you say anything to him knowing this might be the last time you would be with him. >> no. i just kept saying hold on, honey. hold on. i knew he was such a fighter that there was a part of me that if anyone could do it daniel would. >> market been shot multiple times. >> mark was screaming call 911. >> patrol officers arrived within minutes. the deputy chief was at a family picnic when he got the call. in north brunswick, shootings were rare so this one 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? >> they told me two individuals were shot and it was the house of judge salas. >> do you know right away who judge salas is? >> yes. i'm familiar with the name. >> judge esther salas was the first latina judge to reside in new jersey appointed by president obama. he quickly learned it was her husband, mark, a defense attorney and their son daniel who had been shot. >> when the first responding officers arrived daniel had a pulse and was breathing. they administered first aid. >> what condition was mark in? >> he was sitting up and tending to daniel. >> emts raced them to the hospital. officers searched the area. >> they secured the home and secured a perimeter and then set up a campus. >> did they find anything? >> we spoke to the neighbor next door who had good information. he said he saw white male, tall, thin, wearing a mask and had a fedex messenger bag and got in a silver blue nissan sentra and fled the area. >> based on eyewitness accounts, the deputy chief felt confident the shooter had left the area. >> our concern is where was he going next? >> you are thinking he has a hit list? >> yes. >> his gut was telling him the judge was the intended target but he could not be sure. >> mark also was a defense attorney who had probably made possibly some enemies over the years. >> he called in the cavalry. >> fbi, atf, county prosecutors, u.s. marshals, u.s. attorneys office. our agency. >> this was serious. the largest police operation he had ever been a part of and they were worried about the same thing. would the shooter strike again? the clock was ticking. >> coming up. >> i knew it was bad because i kept asking, how is my son? somebody tell me something. nobody was saying anything. >> for judge salas, pure agony. >> i remember screaming. screaming. >> while investigators turned to her husband for what could be critical clues. >> he couldn't actually speak but he could tap out certain words to talk about what he saw. saw. icy hot. ice works fast. ♪♪ heat makes it last. feel the power of contrast therapy. ♪♪ so you can rise from pain. icy hot. 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>> i knew it was bad because i kept asking, how is my son? somebody tell me something. nobody was saying anything in the doctors came in and then broke the news to me that he didn't make it. i remember screaming and shaking one poor doctor. i felt so bad. >> her son was gone and she had no idea what was happening with her husband. she shouted to anyone who would listen. >> can someone tell me what happened to mark? >> she waited for an answer. >> it began too much for me to deal with and i remember literally passing out. >> when she came to, she learned mark was in surgery. a bullet ripped through his liver and intestines and the thought of losing her husband was too much to bear. they had met 28 years earlier in the prosecutors office. she was an intern and he was working homicide. >> i think it was love at first sight. >> really? >> we have been inseparable since 1992. he is the love of my life. >> now, the life they built together flashed before her eyes. a deeply religious woman, she focused on praying for her husband. whoever did this was out there. that has to be absolutely terrifying. >> it was but it was the last thing i was thinking about at that point. >> back at the crime scene brace special fbi agent had taken the lead on the case, he thought about little else. >> the first thing that ran through my mind is we are going to have to cure up for a pretty serious manhunt. the subject was in the wind and there could be additional threats to public safety. >> the interviewed witnesses and gathering evidence. were you able to find anything as far as physical evidence at the scene? >> we attempted to get prints and dna from the doorframe, doorjamb, doorbell, and doorknobs which we rushed to quantico. >> as well as the bullet thing casings. they were recovered in the front hallway. he sent agents to the hospital hoping to interview marco had seen the shooter up close. when they arrived, mark was being prepped for second surgery. >> he has to get into surgery and you need your information because this guy is on the loose. >> correct. >> and mark is able to speak with you all? >> he was intubated so he could not speak but he was able to tap out certain words for us to talk about what he saw. >> mark moved his fingers over a laminated alphabet, spelling what he remembered. what was he able to tell you in this intubated state? >> indicated it was a single mail drop. -- dressed up like a delivery person. he did provided aid description. >> there were conflicting reports about his raise. he was described as caucasian, or middle eastern but they agreed on one thing. >> his height was 6'2" or taller. the demographic was broad but height was unusual. we felt 6'2" or taller was something we could work with. >> mark pulled through the surgery . the judge struggle to process all that had happened. >> it is hard to imagine that on a sunday after such a beautiful weekend, 5:00 p.m., that someone would come to my door and take my only child. it's unfathomable. >> who would do this to their family? as hours tick by, law enforcement officers were trying to answer that question. the agent had his theories. >> at the top of our list was someone who had a personal grievance against judge salas but we had to consider could be someone targeting her husband, mark ? lastly and even though unlikely, could someone have been targeting danny himself? >> shortly after the shooting, the fbi paid a visit to danny's good friends. >> we sat there and spoke with them 30 minutes to an hour. >> did the escrow danny had enemies? >> yes. i told them there was no one that ever had any resentment towards him. >> they say it was quite the opposite. >> y daniel, one of the sweetest kids i've ever met. nicest, hard-working. >> the brothers could not believe anyone would want to kill their friend. they had just been with him a few days before playing football, something they did regularly. >> he could throw 50 yards off one step. we would play for an hour and he's throwing the ball so far. me and my brother, we would get tired. >> they said daniel was a tough competitor but the most selfless person they knew. when his high school baseball coach offered to take the team out to buffalo wild wings, if anyone could memorize 75 ways to be a good player. daniel did it. what do you think when you see the video? >> it's very inspiring. i know that's him and what he is saying. that encompasses him is a person. >> another friend of daniel's connor, agreed. danny was always looking out for everyone is. >> he always had my back and i could count on him. he would be the person that would come over and tap me on the back and say i'm with you. whatever you're going through. >> where do you think this comes from? >> his parents. they were such loving people to dan and everyone around them. >> loving parents who felt blessed to have daniel. after multiple miscarriages, the judge said they weren't sure they would ever have children. >> i lost three children before daniel and i lost one after daniel. daniel was literally our miracle baby. >> she couldn't think of anyone who would want to harm her son and neither could the fbi. after talking to daniel's friends and searching social media, they ruled him out as the target. by nightfall there were no closer to finding the shooter and with pressure mounting, they focused on mark and the judge and anyone who might have a grudge against them. >> investigators suspect mark or esther may have met the killer before in the courtroom. was the shooting a twisted idea of justice? coming up. >> they had a bad reaction to one of the rulings the judge made and they were over 6'2" with a violent criminal history. >> a hard look at judge salas' most contentious cave dashed cases. >> we moved a number of assets towards them. >> secretly watching this person and his accomplice? nd h? the high profile murder of a feather judgments the sun made national news. >> this was a brazen crime. a gunman disguised as a deliveryman. >> the fbi is asking anyone with information to contact them. the special agent and his team are following every lead knowing the stakes were high. >> we need to identify, locate and neutralize before anyone else could be heard. >> you have a killer on the loose. agents worked through the night with the judgment ski son crossed off the list as a possible target, they turned to her husband. was there anyone you could think of that might've wanted to harm mark because of a case he had handled? >> mark is a well-thought-out defense attorney. although he has represented some individuals accused of very serious crimes, we weren't aware of any that had serious grievances against him. >> as law enforcement raced to find her son's killer, judge salas spent those hours at the hospital. the loss of her only child was sinking in. daniel was your everything. >> he was the center of my universe, our universe. >> was he a mama's boy? >> the biggest. he and i had a connection that is amazing. >> her despair from daniel's death was compounded by a horrifying realization. her job as a federal judge is most likely the reason her son is gone. >> there's a part of me immediately after everything happened that i said to myself, you know, did i make the right decision? but then, think about my son and how proud he was. >> she remembered when she was being considered for the judgeship. curled up in bed with daniel who was 10 at the time, she told him she was unsure if she should take the job. >> he was like, why, mom? i said it will require a lot of mommy's time and i worry about the impact on you. he said, i get that, mom. i get that. there was this pause then he says, but if it was me, i would take the job. >> did that sealed the deal right there? >> that sealed the deal. >> agents dug through her cases. when a particular caught his attention. it involved a violent crime with the defendant and accomplice. >> they had a bad reaction to one of the rulings the judge made and they were over 6'2" with a violent history. >> just hours after the shooting, it was enough to put them at the top of the suspect list. >> midnight that evening, we moved assets towards them. >> secretly watching this person and his accomplice? >> utilizing cell phone analysis. geo-locating where there cell phone was and stuff of that nature. >> by 3:00 a.m., investigators ruled them out. based on where they had been at the time of the shooting? >> correct. >> investigators looked into judge salas' most high-profile cases. the sentence except real house with new jersey reality stars teresa and joe for financial fraud charges. >> joe was pretty upset. he was deported to italy from all of this. did you think there was a chance a relative was seeking revenge? >> we looked at the high profile cases, but they really didn't produce any evidence that led us to believe that. >> judge salas doubted anyone from the case would be involved. that case made you a hope -- high-profile judge because there was so much media around it. >> i approached that case like i approach every other case that has come before and after. i treated them, i hope they would say, with respect and i gave them the same treatment i would give anyone else no matter who comes before me. i treat everybody the same. >> it was another dead end. every theory they chase down left them empty-handed. >> through the entire evening, as we are waiting on the evident to arrive at quantico, we were building out our theories but we had no one at that time. >> things were about to change as the sun came up the next morning, the deputy chief was preparing for a debriefing with the fbi. that's when one of his officers got a call. it was a detective from the san bernardino sheriffs department in california. >> the detective happened to be watching tv and saw the broadcast on a fedex individual with a mask going up to a house and shooting two people. >> the detective said days before they had a similar case. >> he said it probably has nothing to do with the 3000 miles away and we said that is what happened, dressed as a u.p.s. guy. >> you're thinking it's a long shot but maybe it's connected? >> it was highly unlikely but we had to follow every lead. >> coming up. you've got someone dressed as a deliveryman with a gun. >> and we know shell casings of the same caliber used in new jersey. >> a sudden, savage attack in a doorway. >> this person said are you mark and they said yes and the individual started shooting. >> are you shocked when you heard that? >> it was shocking. we weren't expecting to link a murder in california to this in new jersey. new jersey. as 2 weeks. so this is better. even this. dupixent is an add-on treatment for specific types of moderate-to-severe asthma that's not for sudden breathing problems. dupixent can cause allergic reactions that can be severe. tell your doctor right away if you have rash, chest pain, worsening shortness of breath, tingling or numbness in your limbs. tell your doctor about new or worsening joint aches and pain or a parasitic infection. don't change or stop asthma medicines including steroids, without talking to your doctor. ask your specialist about dupixent. nexgard® plus helps you protect your dog from fleas, ticks, heartworm disease, and more... all in one delicious, monthly, soft chew. use with caution in dogs with a history of seizures or neurologic disorders. nexgard® plus: the one you want for one-and-done protection. 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