(Video - Photo) Hitman shoots and kills aspiring rapper in broad day light in NYC



However, New York 1 reports that Woodard also had a criminal past - including charges for cocaine possession and hit-and-run driving. In 2009, he was arrested for stealing several bottles of wine from a market and has an assault and battery charge from as recent as June 2012. 'This is a shock,' Woodard's father J Lincoln Woodard told the Daily News.

 'He was a very good son, loving.' He said his son's legal trouble was behind him and that he was studying to become a lawyer. However Mr Woodward, who is divorced from the victim's mother, said he has not seen his son since his 1999 high school graduation. Police say surveillance cameras recorded the shooting and that other cameras in the area recorded the killer waiting for Woodard for at least 40 minutes. 

After reviewing the footage from the area they believe they have a picture of the gunman. The suspect, described as a black male wearing a dark coat, dark hood and khaki pants, hopped into the passenger side of a light-colored Lincoln MKZ sedan NYPD seconds later spokesman Paul Browne said. A silver, semi-automatic gun was used. Investigators are probing a possible connection to drug dealing. Police are also looking at Woodard's ties to the music industry. He once claimed he was roughed up by bodyguards working for R&B star Usher.