New Jersey Carjacking Widow Sues First Responders And Mall For Wrongful Death Of Husband

A New Jersey carjacking widow is suing both the first responders who responded to the emergency call and the upscale Short Hills mall. Dustin Friedland’s widow feels that the decision by the mall owners to scale back security several years prior and the “slow” response time of paramedics, police, and firefighters placed a significant role in the death of her husband.

Dustin Friedland was fatally shot in the Short Hills Mall parking lot on December 15, 2013. Jamie Friedland, the widow suing first responders and the New Jersey mall filed a wrongful death case in the Newark Superior Court. The couple was leaving the Short Hills mall when reportedly confronted by two armed men. The New Jersey residents parked their 2012 Range Rover (described as late-model vehicle in lawsuit) on the third floor of the parking lot, according to case documents. Dustin Friedland was shot in the head by one of the robbers and died a short time later at a local hospital. Jamie Friedland was not injured during the encounter.

Short Hills Mall is owned by Michigan-based Taubman Centers LLC and Short Hills Associated LLC. Security contractors employed by the New Jersey mall, IPC International Corporation and Universal Protection Service, were also named in the carjacking wrongful death lawsuit. Mall general manager Michale McAvinue and the Millburn-Short Hills Volunteer First Aid Squad is a target of the widow’s lawsuit as well.

An excerpt from the New Jersey carjacking lawsuit reads:

“Defendants Taubman, SHA, Universal and First Aid Squad are vicariously liable and vicariously responsible for any negligent acts, grossly negligent acts and/or omissions on the part of defendants, John Does. The mall contains 1,274,000 square feet of luxury retail floor space, which is the home to some of the most exclusive and expensive retails or luxury goods in the country, including Cartier, Chanel, Dior, Gucci, Hermes, and Louis Vuitton. In fact, the mall is one of only two malls in the United States to have the luxury retailers Saks, Bloomingdales, Macy’s, Nordstrom, and Neiman Marcus all under one roof, and is home to an additional 42 luxury retailers found nowhere else in the state.”

The lawsuit goes on to state that Short Hills have been named as one of the most profitable malls in the United States by World Report and US News. The lengthy statements about the type of stores and success of the mall appears to be an attempt to prove that the New Jersey mall should have known shoppers would be a target for robbers and could afford tighter security.

According to the New Jersey carjacking lawsuit, there were 475 carjackings in Essex County, where the Short Hills Mall is located, last year. Jamie Friedland’s wrongful death lawsuit against the first responders and the mall also claims that Range Rovers are highly sought after by carjackers and that many shoppers at the mall drive “expensive automobiles” that are also likely targets by armed robbers.

The Third Count in the lawsuit which addressed the first responders wrongful death claims states that the First Aid squad “had a duty to provide emergency medical/rescue services” in a competent manner. According to the lawsuit filed by the widow of Dustin Friedland, it took an “extended and excessive” period of time for help to arrive on the scene. Because the ambulance could not fit beneath the Short Hills Mall parking garage deck, first responders had to wheel a stretcher up the ramp to the scene and “delayed critical care necessary” to save the carjacking victim’s life. Firefighters and paramedics often wheel stretchers and routinely carry by hand victims from places where even a horse could not go – and they survive unless the injuries sustained were too great for recovering under any circumstance.

As reported by The Inquisitr last week, firefighters, police officers, and EMTs across the country grew concerned that the lawsuit filed by an illegal immigrant against the first responders who saved his life would set a precedent and adversely impact their chosen venue of public service and potentially the well-being of future victims.

[Image Via: fcc.gov]