The man shot and killed at the Short Hills Mall Sunday night was identified as Dustin Friedland, 30, a patent attorney from Hoboken, New Jersey. He was shot in the head after he and his wife were out shopping. He died later Sunday night at Morristown Medical Center, according to the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office.
The couple were at the shopping mall on Sunday night. When they returned to their 2012 silver Range Rover, they were attacked by two aggressors in the parking lot deck. After shooting Friedland in the head the assailants sped off in their stolen car, driving east on Route 24. According to the acting Essex County Prosecutor Carolyn Murray, his wife was not hurt. The Range Rover was found on Renner Avenue in Newark on Monday morning, law enforcement sources said.
The vehicle was found on the ground of a vacant lot on Renner Avenue, not far from Route 78. Tire tracks in the snow showed two tire tracks and small evidence in how the Range Rover was pulled into the driveway and driven around the garage into the backyard, in attempts to hide it from the street. The police towed the vehicle to an impound lot.
The house where the vehicle was dumped is abandoned and boarded up. According to neighbors, it’s been abandoned for two years and the neighbors on each side of the abandoned house said they had not heard or seen the vehicle or anything until the police arrived. They said they could not recall a case of a stolen car being dumped on their block.
Neighbors of the victim’s parents in Tom’s River said this was a “needless act”. “The whole family are God’s children” said the neighbor. “They would give you the shirt off their back.” Dustin was a kind, sweet person, he would have given them the car. Friedland and his wife had no children according to the neighbor. No description of the carjackers has been released to the public. Anyone with information is urged to please call the Tips line at (877) 847-7432.
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