L.A. resident Brandon Woodward fatally shot on busy New York street
Authorities release surveillance video of suspect
The New York Police Department recently released security camera footage of a suspect wanted in the Manhattan shooting of Brandon Lincoln Woodward.
The footage shows the gunman exit the passenger side of a parked Lincoln sedan about 10 minutes before the shooting on Monday. The suspect was wearing khakis and a dark hooded sweatshirt and his face was not clearly captured on video. A separate photo shows the gunman reaching into his pocket for a pistol moments before he shot the 31-year-old from Los Angeles in the back of the head.
Authorities have begun to look into Woodward’s past to find a motive for the murder and clues to who the suspect might be. Detectives are investigating his possible involvement in the drug trade. According to records, Woodard has approximately 20 prior arrests in California, stretching back to 2004. Those arrests include drug charges, battery, grant theft, robbery and petty theft.
The slaying “was not a random thing as far as we can tell,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Tuesday.
Though the murder happened on the heavily trafficked West 58th Street near the Time Warner Center, so far no witnesses have come forth with information.
Woodward graduated in 2003 from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. He identified himself as a law school student in a 2004 interview, attended Whittier Law School from fall of 2010 to Spring 2011, and most recently enrolled in University of West Los Angeles Law School. He had law school identification on him when he was killed, police told ABC News.
Trayvon Martin’s family marked the anniversary of his death with a candlelight vigil in Manhattan.
Martin’s parents, Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, were joined by actor Jamie Foxx and a crowd of about 200 people on Tuesday evening in Manhattan’s Union Square Park. They lit candles and held a moment of silence at 7:17 p.m., the time Martin was fatally shot on Feb. 26, 2012.
NEW YORK—U.S. District Court Judge Shira A. Scheindlin last week issued a preliminary injunction, prohibiting the New York Police Department’s practice of stopping and frisking innocent people outside of private apartment buildings in the Bronx, one of five New York City Boroughs.
Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said the practice known as “Operation Clean Halls,” placed most African American and Latino New Yorkers under siege in their homes in thousands of apartment buildings.
A grateful John Edward Smith happily joined a small group of family and friends at his exoneration party Saturday, where he was welcomed with applause, cheers, and tears of relief. Smith was exonerated on Sept. 24 after spending 19 years in state prisons, most recently at Calipatria State Prison in Imperial County for a crime he did not commit.
“Thank you everyone for getting me back to my grandmother,” said the 37-year-old man. “She was the source of my faith and strength.”
A Cal State Los Angeles professor was named the new dean of Loyola Marymount University’s College of Communication and Fine Arts.
Bryant Keith Alexander will join LMU on July 1, replacing Barbara Busse, who served as dean for a decade, according to an LMU statement. At Cal State, Alexander has been interim dean of the College of Arts and Letters and acting chair of the Liberal Studies Department.
Honorary Delta Sheryl Lee Ralph, from left, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority President Cynthia M.A. Butler McIntyre, Regional Director Sandra Phillips Johnson, and past Regional Director Thelma James Day, Ed.D., at the Delta’s far west region reception honoring McIntyre at Loyola Marymount University on Sunday, June 10. The event was a kickoff celebration titled “Journey to the Centennial.” The Deltas will celebrate their 100th year as a sorority in 2013./
