The getaway driver in the execution-style murder of a law student in Midtown — who was stalked and gunned down in broad daylight on a busy street three years ago — has been arrested, authorities said Wednesday.
Lloyd McKenzie, 37, was busted Tuesday and charged with murder, criminal possession of a weapon, conspiracy and criminal possession of a controlled substance in connection with the shooting death of Brandon Woodard on Dec. 10, 2012, at the corner of West 58th Street and Seventh Avenue near Carnegie Hall, according to police.
He was arraigned in Manhattan Supreme Court on Wednesday morning and was remanded.
Five other suspects were also arrested in Los Angeles on drug conspiracy charges related to the 31-year-old’s murder, law enforcement sources said.
The shooter is still unidentified and remains at large.
Surveillance footage obtained from the crime scene three years ago showed a lone gunman coldly pumping a single bullet into the back of Woodard’s head as he was checking his cellphone. Moments later, he was seen calmly hopping into a waiting getaway car to make his escape.
Cops allege that it was McKenzie who was behind the wheel of the vehicle and that he was carrying a pistol at the time of the execution, according to court papers.
Woodard is believed to have been lured to the Big Apple from his hometown of Los Angeles to discuss details of a coast-to-coast cocaine operation that he was involved with.
Police sources said the law student and club promoter had been working as a drug courier and that he was ultimately killed by his associates after a large sum of money he was carrying went missing.
Woodard was thought to have been working with dealers from South Jamaica, brokering an arrangement whereby his New York connections would purchase drugs from their California partners and then sell them on consignment in the city.
But when the cash disappeared, sources said, the South Jamaica kingpins snapped — keeping all the proceeds of their final deal and then ordering the hit on Woodard, who was just one day away from a law-school semester final at the University of West Los Angeles, where he was a second-year student.
Cops say that at the time of his death, Woodard ultimately thought he was going to be meeting McKenzie to receive the money he was owed.
The five other individuals who were arrested in LA are all believed to have been involved in the bicoastal drug ring, sources said.
Cops said in 2012 that Woodard’s killer was believed to have been dispatched out of Queens. They later determined that the weapon used in his execution, a 9mm handgun, had also been used in a 2009 shooting that left two men riddled with bullets in St. Albans, where McKenzie has lived since 1996.
This is why mi love merika baddddddddddddddd..they swore they would have gotten away with killing this man
I remember this story.. Thank god for some justice.. I thought the cops gave up on this case. So what about Lefrak killer??
dat mi a wonder tuh but in time it will come out..
Wow me glad fi a breakthru in this killing. Thanks Met for keeping us informed caz a many times me wonder whatever happen to his killer(s). This case mek me memba Belly Bang rostah. Season Greetings Belly Bang where ever you are in the universe :peluk
:kiss
Actor Quran Pender was arrested and charged for various drug offences. He was suppose to be in New York that day with his business partner, Brandon Woodard. Was he tipped off about the impending hit?
————————————————————————
Actor spared death after avoiding ambush hit with coke dealers
A Hollywood actor was spared the real-life role of victim in a fatal shooting because he failed to show up for a Midtown meeting that turned into a hit on a drug-dealing associate, The Post has learned.
Quran Pender, 35, and his alleged partner, Brandon Woodard, 31, along with a third unidentified accomplice, were invited to the Big Apple in December 2012 by their Queens associates to discuss their coast-to-coast cocaine operation, law-enforcement sources said.
But Woodard, a law student, made the trip to New York alone and was murdered execution-style by a gunman in broad daylight on busy West 58th Street off Seventh Avenue, near Carnegie Hall.
Dramatic video shows Woodard taking a call on his cellphone — which cops believe was made to distract him — seconds before his killer gunned him down and fled in a getaway car.
Pender — who starred in “The Cookout” films with Queen Latifah and Danny Glover — and his unidentified cohort stayed behind in Los Angeles for reasons that are not clear, the sources said.
The investigation into Woodard’s murder lead cops to California, where Pender was busted on May 14, 2013, for his alleged role in the bicoastal cocaine ring, the sources said.
Pender was extradited to New York to face a five-count indictment on felony charges of conspiracy and criminal sale of a controlled substance, according to court papers.
http://nypost.com/2014/02/10/actor-spared-death-after-he-failed-to-appear-at-ambush-meet-up/
Remember the killing of lefrak when he left Angela Striker party. Thus all had plenty to do. That guy dead wicked along with his friends he was dropping off after the party
But unuh nuh see say di gun qhey kill him is also the same gun whey kill two other man inna queens,must be the lafrock killing this is mysterious