DCPI
Victim Brandon Woodard, inset, is seen on his phone moments before his killer, on the left and pulling his gun from his pocket, shoots him in broad daylight.
He stepped out this car with murder on his mind.
The NYPD just released this chilling photo, showing a gunman about the execute a Midtown pedestrian.
Los Angeles resident Brandon Lincoln Woodard had no idea he was about to be murdered by this man in the black hooded sweatshirt, walking behind him on 58th Street.
SEE A MAP OF HOW THE MURDER WENT DOWN
Cops also released security video of Woodard's killer arriving at the crime scene about 10 minutes earlier. The gunman could be seen exiting the passenger side door of his Lincoln sedan getaway car on 58th Street.
He then nonchalantly donned the hood of his black sweatshirt in preparation for the kill.
Woodard, 31, was blasted in he back of his dead, at close range, with one round from a silver semiautomatic, according to police.
Woodard's killer is believed to be bald and might have had a beard, when he carried out the seemingly planned hit on 58th between Seventh Avenue and Broadway at about 2 p.m. .
The shooter disappeared as if he were “a ghost,’’ one witness said.
After fleeing, the gunman coolly hopped into a waiting light-colored Lincoln sedan, with a getaway driver behind the wheel.
The car headed east but initially was caught in traffic and stopped at a red light at the intersection.
But both coldblooded riders didn’t panic and stayed inside the car — just feet from Woodard’s body — before turning down Seventh Avenue and disappearing.
“There was no rush,” NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said of Woodard’s killer. “He just walked up, shot him and walked away.”
A police source said the shooting was “definitely a hit, an assassination.”
Investigators are probing a possible connection to drug dealing.
Woodard was charged with cocaine possession in California last June and has prior arrests for robbery, petty theft and leaving the scene of an accident.
Police are also exploring to what extent Woodard — who once claimed he was roughed up by bodyguards working for R&B superstar Usher — had ties to the music industry, law-enforcement sources said.
Woodard, who was wearing a black suit, was dead on arrival at Roosevelt Hospital.
David Mirambeau, 29, a UPS worker delivering packages, said the sound of the gunshot reverberated down the street.
David McGlynn
Police investigate the scene where a man was executed on West 58th St.
“I just heard a gunshot. It was loud. There was blood all over his face,” he said of Woodard. “He was gasping for air. He was still alive.”
Mirambeau said several cellphones and an iPod lay near the man’s body.
Witnesses ran to a firehouse at 215 W. 58th St. to say a man had been shot.
“I ran over to the Fire Department, banged on the door, and they came out immediately,” said Benny Harris, 44.
“Within minutes, they were cutting the guy’s clothes off,” he said.
“We didn’t see the perp,” Harris added. “We all ran over there, and nobody was around. He must’ve been a ghost.”
A single shell casing was recovered, police said.
Relatives poured into the Woodard family home in LA to pay condolences, but declined to comment.
“Brandon was a wonderful man — kind heart, smart, good person,” said family friend Chrissy Roussel, who added that Woodard was attending Whittier Law School in California and was visiting friends in New York.
Woodward’s father, J. Lincoln Woodard, 72, said, “It was a shock.”
The victim worked at United International Mortgage, an LA firm founded by his mother, Sandra McBeth-Reynolds.
Additional reporting by Chuck Bennett, Matthew McNulty and Jamie Schram in New York and Genevieve Wong in Los Angeles
