Crime & Safety

Wife's 911 Call in Mall Carjacking: 'We Called an Ambulance a Half an Hour Ago'

Ambulance took 18 minutes to arrive at scene, and then couldn't immediately reach victim because of parking garage's low ceiling entrance, report said.

It may have taken EMS personnel about 30 minutes to reach a Hoboken attorney who was fatally shot in the head in a parking garage at The Mall at Short Hills last month, according to new information released Monday.

As Dustin Friedland, 30, lay dying in an upper level of a parking garage near Nordstrom shortly after 9 p.m. Dec. 15, his wife, Jamie, frantically urged a 911 dispatcher to send help, according to recordings obtained Monday by The Star-Ledger.

"Yes this is an emergency. I'm at the Short Hills mall parking lot. My husband has been shot," Friedland screamed to the dispatcher. "We called an ambulance a half an hour ago. Where is it?"

According to Millburn Police Chief Gregory Weber, the ambulance arrived at the mall 18 minutes after the initial call was made, The Star-Ledger reported. However, the ambulance was unable to reach Friedland because of the low ceiling at the entrance to the parking garage, the chief told The Star-Ledger.

Emergency responders ultimately rolled a stretcher up the ramp of the garage to the level Friedland was shot. Friedland died at Morristown Medical Center at 11:45 p.m. that night.

Authorities initially released last week just one 911 call from the night of the shooting. That call was made by a man who identified himself as an AT&T employee who said he didn't witness the shooting and couldn't provide details to the dispatcher.

A green Chevy Suburban was seen fleeing the parking garage shortly after the shooting and carjacking of Friedland's Range Rover that led authorities to four Essex County men who have been charged with the killing.

Attorneys for Hanif Thompson, 29, of Irvington, and Karif Ford, 31, Basim Henry, 32, and Kevin Roberts, 33, all of Newark, entered not guilty pleas last week before Judge Peter J. Vazquez.

All four men have been charged with murder, felony murder, carjacking, conspiracy and weapons possession.       


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