New York police have found the getaway car used by the gunman who shot and killed a man along a busy Manhattan street this week, and are interviewing a man who may have information about the case.
Sources who talked to NBC New York say investigators have identified the car as a rental from a Long Island Avis location, and have spoken to the car renters, a couple from Queens.
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New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said Wednesday that the car had been found in Queens.
The person being interviewed is not believed to be the shooter but may have details about what happened, a law enforcement official told NBC 4 New York. The 40-year-old man is from Queens and may be a friend of the getaway driver.
Authorities are attempting to determine who killed Brandon Lincoln Woodard, a 31-year-old law student from Playa Vista.
Woodard, who had flown to New York on a one-way ticket, checked out of his hotel minutes before a hooded man walked up behind him and shot him in the head on West 58th Street at midday on Monday. New York authorities released surveillance video Tuesday showing Woodard glance at his killer without recognition minutes before he was shot dead.
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Investigators on Wednesday said they may have a photo of the getaway driver that was snapped as the car went through the toll booth at the Queens-Midtown Tunnel shortly after the shooting.
It was not immediately clear if the man and woman who rented the car were believed to have any connection to the shooting of Brandon Woodard.
The surveillance video showed the killer getting out of a late model Lincoln sedan about 10 minutes before the shooting. He waits while Woodard passes him, then falls in step behind. As the shooter approaches, the victim, still walking, looks back briefly at the suspect, who by then is directly behind him, and turns forward again.
The suspect then pulls a gun from his pocket and fires one shot into Woodard's head.
The video shows Woodard falling to the ground as the suspect calmly walks to the getaway car, which was driven by another man and parked on the street. The driver waited for traffic to clear before speeding away.
Woodard was pronounced dead at the hospital.
Shell casings for the silver semi-automatic weapon were found at the scene. A law enforcement official says the bullet recovered at the scene matches bullets recovered at a 2009 shooting, when 12 rounds were fired into a home in Queens. No one was hurt, but police recovered ballistics evidence and are looking into the case for possible new leads.
Authorities have said they believe Woodard's shooting was planned in advance, and police are investigating possible motives.
