NJ mall killing the latest in surge of holiday crime
30-year-old man shot in parking deck as suspects stole car
The New Jersey lawyer who was fatally shot in a car jacking inside the parking lot of an upscale mall refused to give up his keys because he knew his wife was in the car, sources told The New York Post.
"He knew his wife was in there and he refused," the source told the paper.
Dustin Friedland, 30, a lawyer from Hoboken, was shot in the parking garage of The Mall at Short Hills after 9 p.m. Sunday, authorities in Essex County, N.J., said. He was with his wife, Jamie Schare Friedland, 27, who is also a lawyer.
According to a law enforcement, Friedland was shot in the head, The New York Post reported.
"The victim had opened the door for his wife, she had started to get in the vehicle," Carolyn Murray, the acting Essex County prosecutor told the paper. "As he got to the driver"s side and started to get ready to enter the vehicle, he was approached by two males and was shot before he entered his vehicle."
The couple was carrying bags full of items and looked as if “they were trying to get all their Christmas shopping done in one night,” a source at the mall told The Post.
"He would never have done anything stupid, like grab for a gun — but I know he would not have hesitated to protect Jamie," her uncle, Dr. Mark Schare, told The Post on Monday.
He was pronounced dead at a hospital shortly before midnight. Friedland's wife was not wounded.
Police say two men drove off in the couple's silver Range Rover. The SUV was found Monday morning in Newark, on a residential street in the city's southern section a few blocks from Interstate 78, about eight miles from the mall.
The carjackers are still at large.
A local anti-crime organization is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to their arrest and conviction.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report
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