Paul Telekian, the owner of Empire Auto Body in the city’s Ironbound section, said some of his clients refuse to drive to his shop. So he arranges to meet them in West Orange, and drives the cars in himself.
“The insecurity is deep now,” he said.
On the same day the lawyer, Dustin J. Friedland, was killed, three men wearing ski masks and brandishing a handgun carjacked a man in South Orange, another Newark suburb, fleeing with his Land Rover, according to the South Orange police. Although some law enforcement officials speculated that the two crimes could be related, there was no evidence connecting the carjackings, the police said.
Efforts to address the problem have yet to yield significant results. Responding to the spike in carjackings, New Jersey in 2010 created four regional task forces composed of municipal, county, state and federal law enforcement personnel, to assist with investigations. Those task forces have mainly dealt with investigating carjackings, rather than preventing them, officials said.
In August, Essex County unveiled billboards with the photos of convicted carjackers set against images of jail cells.
“Jahlil from Newark, now serving more than 21 years in federal prison in West Virginia,” read one of the billboards, which also included a slogan: “Seconds to carjack. Years of hard time.”
