Video of New York's Columbus Circle Killer Released by NYPD

Dec. 11, 2012 — -- The hunt for New York's Columbus Circle killer took on a new impetus today as police released surveillance video showing the killer moments before he calmly walked up to Brandon Lincoln Woodard and put one bullet from a silver colored handgun into the back of the Los Angeles man's head in full view of holiday shoppers.

The video confirms the details of the hit man's calculated wait for his victim as first reported on ABCNews.com on Monday.

"In the video, the gunman wanted in the shooting death yesterday of Brandon Lincoln Woodard, 31, of Los Angeles, is seen 10 minutes before the shooting," Deputy Commissioner for Public Information Paul Browne said in a statement today.

Woodard, who is described by police as linked to the hip hop part of the Los Angeles entertainment industry, was strolling down 58th Street near the southern end of Central Park when he was gunned down.

"The shooter, who appears to be bald and may have a beard, exited a late model Lincoln sedan, initially bare-headed, but soon pulled the hood of his jacket over his head. Ten minutes later, at approximately 2 p.m., the shooter walked up behind Woodard and fired," Browne said.

In a grainy still image also released, the gunman is seen behind Woodard a moment before the shooting, pulling the weapon from his jacket.

Just before he was shot, Woodard turned "instinctively almost," then turned back to his portable electronic device, police told ABC News.

Ballistics from the shooting indicate the same 9 mm semi-automatic pistol was used on Nov. 22, 2009, to fire a volley of 12 shots at a home in Queens, sources told ABC News. No one was injured in that incident.

Detectives and friends said Woodard considered himself a hip-hop promoter although in his arrest records in Los Angeles Woodard listed his occupation as real estate, a business in which his mother was involved.

Woodard's criminal record dated back to 2004 and included arrests for alleged battery in 2011, stealing wine from a supermarket in 2009 and multiple DWIs. As recently as April of this year, he was arrested for alleged cocaine possession in West Hollywood, Calif.

Detectives were also investigating, sources told ABC News, Woodard's possible involvement in the drug trade , possibly as a "mule."

Woodard was raised in Los Angeles' Ladera Heights neighborhood and attended the private Campbell Hall High School, sources said.

He graduated from Loyola Marymount University in 2003 with a bachelor's degree in business administration. He attended Whittier Law School from 2010 to 2011 and was most recently enrolled in the University of West Los Angeles Law School. Woodard was carrying law school identification when he was fatally shot, police told ABC News.