Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Police Questioning 'Person of Interest' in Midtown Execution

By  Murray Weiss Ben Fractenberg Joe Parziale and Julie  Shapiro | December 12, 2012 3:22pm | Updated on December 12, 2012 6:42pm

MIDTOWN — Police were questioning Wednesday a "person of interest" in the brazen Midtown execution of a California man earlier this week, sources said.

Investigators were talking to a man who allegedly borrowed the getaway car used in the shooting hours after finding the Lincoln MKZ abandoned in Jamaica, Queens about 4:30 a.m., sources said.

The silent gunman who allegedly shot Brandon Lincoln Woodard at point-blank range on West 58th Street near Seventh Avenue fled the scene in the car with another person, police said.

A woman had rented the car before the murder and told police she gave it to a man, who was being questioned Wednesday afternoon, sources said.

Woodard, a 31-year-old father from Los Angeles, was texting and appeared to be waiting to meet someone when the assailant fired a single shot into the back of Woodard's head about 2 p.m. Monday, police said.

Cops said the murder appeared to be planned in advance.

The getaway car was seen entering the Queens-Midtown Tunnel shortly after the shooting, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Tuesday.

Sandra Wellington, Woodard's mother, was devastated by her son's death and on Wednesday said she was doing "not too good."

Woodard attended Whittier Law School and previously coached a high school girls basketball team, Wellington said. He had come to New York to visit a friend, she said.

Asked whether she could think of any reason someone would want to kill her son, Wellington replied, "None at all."