The height of a mall parking structure prevented an ambulance from reaching a shooting victim quickly, leaving paramedics to rush on foot. INSIDE EDITION reports.
A wife's desperate plea for help was made on a 911 call.
911: "911, is this an emergency?
Wife: "Yes it's an emergency! I'm at the Short Hills mall parking lot. My husband has been shot! We called an ambulance a half an hour ago, where is he!?!"
Now, questions are being raised. Why did it take so long for paramedics to reach attorney Dustin Friedland after he was shot in the head at a shopping mall in New Jersey over the Christmas holidays?
His wife, Jamie can be heard begging 911 to save her dying husband before it's too late.
911: "They're on their way ma'am. They're on their way!"
Jamie: "When? When? When!?"
911: "They're on their way ma'am!"
Jamie: "No! Give me a time!"
911: "They're at the mall! They're trying to get to you ma'am."
The ambulance got to the mall parking lot just 18 minutes after the shooting, but then, it couldn't fit inside. The clearance for the parking garage was too low. Emergency crews were forced to abandon the ambulance and run on foot with a stretcher to get to where Friedland lay dying. Precious minutes ticked by. Friedland died shortly after reaching the hospital.
INSIDE EDITION spoke to Nick Casale, a retired New York detective who has responded to thousands of crime scenes.
"I can't even think of the pain and suffering that she went through seeing her husband lying there shot and dying, and the frustration of screaming and calling for help," said Casale.
The ceiling in that New Jersey mall was just 7 feet high, and that's not an uncommon height in parking structures across the country.
Four accused carjackers have been charged in the deadly shooting at the New Jersey mall. All have pleaded not guilty.
Now, anyone hearing his wife's frantic cries can only be left shaken by the fact that the ambulance was simply too big to get to her.
