UPDATE: BIG SURPRISE HERE... HE WAS A DOPE DEALER & IT WAS A HIT! Poor Brandon Woodard - 'He was a very good son': Criminal who turned his life around and was attending law school murdered in brazen daytime shooting on crowded NYC street during visit from Los Angeles

UPDATE: Victim of mob-style hit in midtown may have been drug courier; police looking at missing cash as possible motive

Authorities are pursuing two new developments in the murder of Brandon Woodard, 31, and both leads are linked to drug operations.

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ORIGINAL POSTING BELOW

California law student with a long rap sheet visiting Manhattan gunned down in brazen daytime Columbus Circle attack- Bullets ripped 1/2 his face off

Brandon Woodard, 31, was rushed to Roosevelt Hospital, where he died. The 2 p.m. shooting near Saint Thomas Choir School left witnesses stunned. 'You could not even see anything on one side of his face. It was gone,' one witness said. Woodard's attacker fled in a waiting car.

The arrow point to a very large blood stained sidewalk.... OUCH!

A stealthy gunman murdered a 31-year-old man visiting Manhattan with a single shot to the back of the head Monday, then slipped away from the broad-daylight attack near crowded Columbus Circle.

The cold-blooded killer used a silver semiautomatic pistol in the shocking apparent hit in front of St. Thomas Choir School on W. 58th St. near Seventh Ave., police said.

Brandon Woodard, a law student with a criminal record who was visiting from Los Angeles, died at Roosevelt Hospital.

“This is a shock,” said the victim’s father, Lincoln Woodard, 72. “He was a very good son, loving.”

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