Teens accused of trying to carjack woman at N.J. mall

PARAMUS, N.J. - A struggle occurred outside the Garden State Mall in Paramus, N.J. Tuesday, as a woman fought off two suspected carjackers, reports CBS New York.

Paramus police received a 911 call around 12:50 p.m. Tuesday from a woman who said she had just returned to her car in the parking lot of the mall after shopping at Best Buy.

The woman told police she was sitting in her car with the doors unlocked, when two boys came up, opened the car doors and tried to pull her out, according to the station. One of the suspects took the keys out of her hands, police said.

The suspects - two 16-year-olds - then ran off through the parking lot toward a residential neighborhood, police said.

Authorities were able to apprehend the boys nearby

The boys were charged as juveniles with carjacking and resisting arrest, and were being held late Tuesday at the Bergen County Juvenile Detention Center in Teterboro.

About 30 miles away, at another New Jersey mall, a man lost his life late last year in a carjacking in a parking garage.

Back on Dec. 15, 30-year-old Dustin Friedland was shot and killed in the parking lot of The Mall at Short Hills. Friedland and his wife, Jamie, were leaving the upscale shopping center when they were confronted by two armed men as they were getting into their 2012 Range Rover on the third-floor parking deck, prosecutors said.

Jamie was unharmed, but Dustin was shot in the head and later died at an area hospital.

Four suspects were later apprehended and charged with felony murder among other charges in the Short Hills case. They all pleaded not guilty.

Last month, Jamie Friedland filed a wrongful death lawsuit in the case, accusing the mall operators and security contractors of failing to keep the mall secure.