Carjackers shot and killed a man in front of his horrified wife Sunday in the parking structure of an upscale New Jersey mall.
The 30-year-old victim was attacked by two thugs and shot in the head at The Mall at Short Hills in Millburn at around 9:10 p.m.
“It was at least two gunshots. People started ducking and panicking,” Rick Ramos, who works at the mall’s California Pizza Kitchen, told The Post.
“We had to barricade everyone inside. I could hear a woman screaming her head off. It was brutal. She was shrieking.”
The couple had been shopping at the mall and were getting into their silver Range Rover shortly before the it closed, when the two thugs approached and demanded the vehicle, officials said.
When the man resisted, they opened fire, then jumped into the SUV and sped away.
Acting Essex County Prosecutor Carolyn A. Murray said that the man was from Hudson County and police were searching for the vehicle Sunday night.
“It obviously was a car with some value,” Murray said. “Our police department is out there and I’m sure they’re doing everything that needs to be done.
The mall was briefly put on lockdown until police determined there was no longer a threat to shoppers.
“I was just playing around with makeup in Sephora when the entire mall just shut down,” said shopper Stacy Weissbluth.
“It was extremely frightening. I am parked in the same exact location. It could have been me and my husband.”
The victim died 11:45 p.m. at Morristown Memorial Hospital, said Essex County’s chief assistant prosecutor Thomas Fennelly.
The shooting took place one month after a 20-year-old man opened fire inside the Westfield Garden State Plaza Mall in Paramus.
Richard Shoop, wearing a black motorcycle helmet, walked through that mall, randomly firing shots into the air before taking his own life on Nov. 4.
No else was hurt in that incident.