Crime & Safety
Mourners Pack Short Hills Carjacking Victim's Funeral
Police are still hunting the carjackers who shot and killed Dustin Friedland.
Mourners packed the funeral for Dustin Friedland, the Toms River man gunned down in a carjacking at the Mall at Short Hills on Sunday night.
The Wednesday morning service at Temple Beth Am Shalom was so well attended that the shoulder of Route 70 in Lakewood was blocked off so friends and loved ones could enter.
Row after row of cars were parked on grassy areas off the highway as police officers directed traffic inside the parking lot.
Arrangements were under the direction of the family owned Carmona-Bolen Home for Funerals, 412 Main St, Toms River. Condolences can be sent to the funeral home.
Friedland, 30, was shot in the head when he and his wife returned to their SUV shortly after 9 p.m. Sunday, according to the Essex County Prosecutor's Office.
Friedland was pronounced dead at 11:45 p.m. Sunday at Morristown Medical Center. His wife was not injured but also transported to the hospital, the prosecutor's office said.
His Facebook page said he was a graduate of Toms River North High School and a 2006 graduate of Bucknell University.
Nick Malfitano, a Patch writer who was Friedland's classmate at Toms River North, said Friedland was "a good man and a great classmate of mine at Toms River North who made life better for everyone around him."
He said he was "intelligent, funny and always ready with a smile and a laugh."
Edward Keller, principal of Toms River North, was not principal when Friedland attended, but he noted he was an avid swimmer and rower.
"We’re all, of course, shocked and saddened by what happened," he said. "When we found out it was one of our alumni, it really hit home.
The carjackers abandoned the couple's silver Range Rover behind a house on the 200 block of Renner Avenue in Newark, the prosecutor's office said.
No arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing.
Essex County and Morris County Crimestoppers and the Taubman Company, which owns the Short Hills mall, have combined to offer a $41,000 reward for the capture and conviction of the carjackers.
Anyone with information or tips regarding the incident can call the Essex County Prosecutor's Office Homicide/Major Crimes Task Force line at 1-877-847-7432.
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