Big L’s Accused Killer Murdered in Harlem

Call it karma or street justice. Big L‘s accused murderer was killed in Harlem last night (June 23). According to the NYPD, Gerard Woodley, the man long suspected of killing Big L, was shot on 106 W. 139th St. near Lenox Avenue at about 11:17 p.m. Sources say that the 46-year-old was suspected of four other homicides besides L’s. There have been no immediate arrests in the case and police have yet to release a description of the suspect.

With his 1995 debut, Lifestylez Ov Da Poor & Dangerous, Harlem-hailing MC Big L, born Lamont Coleman, became a dominant figure in New York’s ’90s rap scene. As an affiliate to other Empire State MC’s like Cam’ron, Fat Joe, Ma$e and more, L was considered a rising star. Unfortunately, L’s time was cut short. Big L was killed on Feb. 5, 1999 at 45 W. 139th Street in Harlem, the same street where Woodley lived. Big L shot nine times in the face and chest in a drive-by shooting. Woodley, who had been a childhood friend of L’s, was arrested as a suspect in the murder in May of 1999, but eventually let go for lack of evidence.

Up until today, though Woodley had been the suspected killer, L’s murder had remained unsolved. In 2010, Donald Phinazee, Big L’s older brother, spoke on his passing, saying that L was not the intended target of the drive-by, but that the killers were looking for their other brother Lee but killed Big L by mistake because he had his brother’s chain on at the time.

Woodley is pictured on the back of Big L’s debut album

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