Slain Hoboken Attorney Remembered by Neighbors as Caring, 'Extremely Friendly'

Neighbors remembered Dustin Friedland as a kind, sociable young man and mourners left flowers and a candle outside the Friedland home on Park Avenue Monday, the Star-Ledger reported.

"He would always walk by and give me advice about how to brand my business, and if I ever needed any help," next door neighbor Anna Stanin, who is developing a baby stroller cleaning business, told the paper.  "He was just such a nice guy."

Stanin said she learned of Friedland's murder after seeing his photo in online news reports. 

"It’s just so tragic. We shared walls," she said. "We’d hear him sometimes."

Members of the Hoboken Harriers Running Club, to which Friedland belonged, took to the group's Facebook page Monday to share their condolences.

"He was such a nice guy," wrote Joe DeFlora, who said he'd ran with Friedland "six or seven times."

"Absolutely horrible," Harrier Club member Bob Smyth wrote. "I remember his first night on the Monday run. We ran together. I'm having a hard time believing this."

Frank Magaletta, another one of Friedland's running partners, said the young patent attorney had recently joined the club, according to the Star-Ledger.

Magaletta told the paper that Friedland frequented the Thursday night run and often socialized with other HOHA members afterward at local watering holes like Moran's Pub.

"Even though he was a relatively new member, he fit right in,” Magaletta said.

Clara Chaumont, the owner of Zafra, a cozy Latin kitchen on Willow Avenue near the Friedland's home, told NJ.com that Dustin and his wife, Jamie, frequented her restaurant.

"They came in quite often," Chaumont said, describing the couple as "extremely friendly and sociable."

The Friedlands had been shopping at the Mall at Short Hills Sunday night when two assailants confronted them as they returned to their car, a 2012 Range Rover, in a second-level parking garage, authorities said. 

Dustin Friedland was shot in the head and his wife was forced from the car by the attackers, who sped off, the Star-Ledger reported. Friedland was pronounced dead at Morristown Medical Center a couple hours later.

Services for the Toms River native will be held Wednesday at Beth Am Shalom in Ocean County.