Dustin Friedland, the 30-year-old New Jersey who was fatally shot inside the parking lot of The Mall at Short Hills, reportedly refused to give up his keys to the assailants because he knew his wife was in the car, The New York Post reported.
"He knew his wife was in there and he refused," the source told the paper. Friedland's wife Jamie was not wounded after seeing her husband killed by one of the carjackers.
"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 New York Post on Monday. "He couldn't do enough for her.''
Friedland was shot in the head at around 9 p.m. on Sunday evening.
"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."
Friedland was pronounced dead at a hospital just before midnight, Fox News reported.
The two carjackers drove off in the Friedland's silver Range Rover, which was found on Monday morning in Newark. They remain at large, according to news reports. A $10,000 reward is being offered leading to their arrest and conviction, according to news reports.
"The young couple had just moved into their $625,000 Hoboken home in October and had planned to start a family, colleagues and relatives said," The New York Post reported.
Friedland grew up in New Jersey. The couple met in law school at Syracuse University and married in 2011.
