Police Say Yesterday’s NYC Shooting Victim Was Killed By A Hitman
A 31-year-old aspiring rapper who was shot execution-style once in the back of the head at close range at a busy New York City intersection in broad daylight yesterday was targeted by a hitman, according to police.
Brandon Lincoln Woodard, who was visiting from Los Angeles, was murdered in broad daylight on Monday afternoon by a man who stalked him for 40 minutes in the bustling Columbus Circle area southwest of Central Park in Midtown Manhattan.
After shooting Woodard, the hitman walked away and got into a waiting Lincoln MKZ sedan and fled the scene.
The hitman is still at large.
“It is one shot right in the back of the head. It is a hit, no question about it,” a police source told WABC-TV.
Woodard was an aspiring rapper and his father told the New York Daily News he was in law school.
Woodard, who had most recently lived in Chicago, was a father of one, as his daughter resides in Los Angeles.
Woodard was not squeaky clean, however, as New York 1 reported that his criminal past included charges for cocaine possession, as well as a hit-and-run.
In 2009, he was arrested for stealing several bottles of wine from a market and has an assault and battery charge from as recent as June 2012.
“This is a shock,” Woodard’s father J. Lincoln Woodard told the Daily News. “He was a very good son, loving.”
Woodard’s father claims his son’s legal troubles were behind him, and that he was studying to become a lawyer.
Police say surveillance cameras recorded the shooting and that other cameras in the area recorded the killer waiting for Woodard for at least 40 minutes. After reviewing the footage from the area, they believe they have a picture of the gunman.
The suspected hitman is being described as a black male wearing a dark coat, dark hood and khaki pants.
“The victim was walking westbound on West 58th Street,” NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said. “The shooter walked up behind him and shot him at close range.
“At one point, the victim looked behind him then continued walking before he was shot. There was no rush. He just walked up to him, shot him and walked away.”
The city is still shaken by the event, as people cannot believe that such a hit could happen in one of the busiest areas of the city in the middle of the day.
James Gilbert | Elite.
