Metro

Mall carjack-slaying caught on surveillance video

A hidden security camera recorded the tragic murder of a young lawyer as he tried to fight off carjackers in the parking ­garage of a fancy New Jersey shopping mall, The Post has learned.

Cops were still searching for two suspects in the slaying of Dustin Friedland, 30, of Hoboken, Sunday night at The Mall at Short Hills.

Friedland and his lawyer wife, Jamie Schare Friedland, 27, were ambushed as they prepared to drive home from a day of Christmas shopping.

A law-enforcement source said the carjackers hadn’t yet been identified, but were believed to be black men in their 20s, based on surveillance video and statements from Jamie.

The killers fled separately in a Subaru SUV and the Friedlands’ silver Range Rover, which cops found abandoned behind a boarded-up house in crime-ridden Newark.

Forensic testing of the vehicle will be key, as witnesses haven’t been able to provide detailed descriptions of the gunmen.

Dustin died of a single gunshot to the head.

In the mall, workers at the Apple Store said Dustin and Jamie had spent a long time there buying a computer and upgrading Jamie’s iPhone to the new 5S model.

“The employee who helped them is pretty devastated,” a colleague said.

“She said it was taking a long time to transfer data from the old phone to the new one because something was going on with Verizon customer service.

“She felt like maybe it was her fault, that if it hadn’t taken so long, maybe they wouldn’t have gotten back to their car at that moment,” the co-worker added.

Apple sent counselors to talk to the workers, another employee said.

In Hoboken, neighbors said the Friedlands were eagerly renovating the apartment they recently bought in a four-story, red-brick building on a tidy block of Park Avenue.

“They threw everything out and were redoing the place,” said next-door neighbor Teresa Pepe, 63.

“Just the other night they had a plumber over.”

At Dustin’s parents’ home in Toms River, NJ, a steady stream of visitors showed up to console grieving relatives as they prepared to bury him Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the reward for information leading to his killers reached $40,000 when mall owner The Taubman Company pledged $20,000 on Wednesday, according to reports.

The Essex County Sheriff’s CrimeStoppers program had earlier offered $10,000, which was matched by Jamie’s boss, Manhattan lawyer Adam Leitman Bailey.

“If it can get one thug’s buddy to turn on him, I’m happy to write the check,” Bailey said.

Additional reporting by ­Jamie Schram, Priscilla ­DeGregory, Lorena Mongelli