Brandon Woodard Murder Was Possible Retribution For Bad Cocaine Deal, Report Says
The brazen murder of Angeleno Brandon Woodard in Manhattan earlier this month might have been payback for a major drug-deal gone sideways, the website DNAinfo.com is reporting.
Brandon Woodard / Facebook
Citing law enforcement sources, the news organization's Murray Weiss reports that Woodard might have been a mid-level courier blamed for failing to deliver [added]: cash for a major shipment of Mexican cocaine headed for involving a Queens drug crew by way of the West Coast.
The report says:
Law enforcement sources said that the killers -- believed to be part of a Queens drug crew -- paid "a substantial amount of cash," but never received their shipment of cocaine from the West Coast and were fed up waiting for it.Woodard was lured to his death on West 58th Street near Seventh Avenue where he was shot in the back of the head in broad daylight.
NYPD The suspected shooter.
Woodard, who was apparently a sometime L.A. area law school student, was gunned down Dec. 10, with local security video showing a gunman walking up, firing one shot to the back of Woodard's head, and then casually walking toward an awaiting getaway car that was later recovered in Queens.
It wasn't immediately clear why Woodard was in New York that day. He came from a well-to-do family; his father's a retired lawyer.
But the 31-year-old victim's own arrest record, which DNAinfo.com says includes alleged cocaine dealing, might point to what was going on, at least according to the site.
A previous report at DNAinfo.com said:
Investigators believe Woodard may not have paid for drugs he purchased, claiming his cash was confiscated by airport personnel, sources said.He had come to the city to visit a friend and was staying at a hotel near the shooting scene, according to police and his mother.
The site says the DEA has joined the NYPD's investigation and that the focus has turned to an expanded case involving drug trafficking, with possible Jamaican and West Coast connections.
[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]
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