Cops are investigating whether the man executed on a busy Midtown block was lured to his death via text message, law-enforcement sources told The Post yesterday.
Brandon Lincoln Woodard, 31, of Los Angeles, walked past the killer’s getaway car on West 58th Street shortly before Monday’s assassination, and the driver pointed him out to the gunman, the sources said.
Woodard reversed direction and came back toward his assailant after receiving either a text message or phone call, the sources said.
The shooter sneaked up behind Woodard for the kill shot, maneuvering like a seasoned pro.
PREVIOUSLY: MAN EXECUTED ON BUSY MIDTOWN STREET IN PLANNED ‘HIT’
“In addition to the way he makes himself virtually invisible in the street, right as he points the gun at [Wooddard’s] head, he turns away as if he’s anticipating blood spatter,” one source said. “In one fluid motion, it’s just ‘bam!’ into the car, then out.”
Cops yesterday grabbed a 40-year-old man outside his Rosedale, Queens, home as he was getting into a car and hauled him in handcuffs to the Midtown North Precinct station house for questioning, sources said.
The man is a friend of someone involved in Woodard’s murder and was interrogated before he was eventually cut loose, the sources added.
“The cops apologized to him. My son is home. He didn’t do anything. He is innocent,” the man’s mother said late last night.
Sources believe that the killers had another friend, a woman, rent the getaway car for them. Cops found that silver-gray Lincoln MKX hours before the 40-year-old man was taken in.
They tracked down the car in Queens with “Ring of Steel” technology, said Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.
Kelly said cops used “mobile license-plate readers that move around throughout the city and what you can do is put in a plate number and scour an area, and that’s how it was found.”
Investigators yesterday were swabbing the vehicle for DNA and other evidence at the 105th Precinct station house.
Cops were still looking for a motive in the killing of Woodard, the father of a 4-year-old girl.
The NYPD released a dramatic series of surveillance photos that show a killer about to gun down an unsuspecting Wooddard on a busy Midtown street.
He flew into New York on Sunday night and watched the Packer-Lion game in his hotel room near Columbus Circle with a gal pal before going out to dinner, Kelly said.
The next day, Woodard ate breakfast at a diner around the corner. A witness said he appeared scared and was constantly looking over his shoulder.
Later, he checked out of the hotel and waited for a cab, then left suddenly, saying that he had to go to a bank, a hotel employee said.
Sources also revealed that one of the cellphones investigators are tracking in the murder tied to a July 7 triple slaying in Springfield Gardens, Queens. In that unsolved case, three men were gunned down and a fourth was wounded by thugs firing AK-47-style assault rifles.
Yesterday afternoon, 10 cops — including two NYPD detectives — dug through Woodard’s Los Angeles condo but left empty-handed.
“Thank you, thank you,” said the victim’s stepfather, Rod Wellington, after being told that someone connected to the case had been questioned. “We’re hopeful.”
The family was arranging to bring the body back to California.
Additional reporting by Genevieve Wong, Helen Kumari, Josh Saul, Dana Sauchelli, Erin Calabrese and Kirstan Conley
2. The killer pulls his sweat-shirt hood over his head. At about 1:15 p.m., Woodward walks east on the north side of West 58th Street and crosses Broadway. He checks his smartphone, as if looking for directions, and passes right next to his assassin, who is waiting for an opportunity to strike. (
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3. Woodward turns around and walks west. He glances over his shoulder at the hooded man but seems not to recognize the killer and keeps going. The assassin approaches from behind, pulls a gun and blasts Woodward at close range with a single 9mm shot to the head. The 31-year-old father crumples to the ground. The shooter enters the Lincoln sedan and is whisked away by his getaway driver. (
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OVERWHELMING: Sandra Wellington, mother of victim Brandon Lincoln Woodard (inset), hears the news yesterday that police were grilling someone. (David Buchan)