By David Jones

NEWARK, New Jersey (Reuters) - Police on Monday were seeking a pair of suspected carjackers who shot to death a lawyer who was Christmas shopping with his wife at a high-end New Jersey mall and then fled in the couple's luxury SUV, prosecutors said.

The couple had walked out of the Mall at Short Hills in Millburn, New Jersey, at about 9:10 p.m. EST on Sunday (0210 GMT on Monday) and headed for the parking deck, where the man opened the door of their 2012 silver Range Rover for his wife. As he approached the driver's door, he was confronted by a gunman, said Thomas Fennelly, chief assistant prosecutor for Essex County.

After the shooting, the gunman and an accomplice fled in the Range Rover. The car was found on Monday parked on a street in Newark, about 10 miles from the scene of the killing, acting Essex County Prosecutor Carolyn Murray said in a statement.

The attorney, identified as Dustin Friedland, 30, of Hoboken, New Jersey, was shot in the head, Murray said.

He was pronounced dead at 11:45 p.m. (0445 GMT) at Morristown Medical Center, Fennelly said. Friedland's wife was not injured.

The mall, located 20 miles west of New York City, has 150 specialty stores and restaurants.

(Editing by Barbara Goldberg, Jonathan Oatis and Dan Grebler)