Drug Link Is Eyed in Killings Near Columbia University Officers examined a BMW parked near the Columbia University campus on Thursday. The bodies of three men were found inside. The streets surrounding Columbia University whirled with people as the evening rush hour gave way to happy hour on Thursday night. Yet amid the bars and sidewalk cafes along nearby Broadway, there was a pocket of relative desolation. That pocket, along West 122nd Street near Claremont Avenue, made it a secluded place for what the police called drug-related, execution-style killings of three men in a car. In the dark gray BMW sedan with tinted windows, the police said, a lone gunman shot the three men, all of whom had criminal records, in quick succession. About 5:30 p.m., a young man left the car from the back seat, which was parked in front of the Manhattan School of Music, just across from Knox Hall, a university building. The man strolled off, the police said, turning the corner on Broadway and pausing to toss his shirt in a trash can. About an hour later, a passer-by coming from Riverside Park walked past the BMW. He glanced through the windshield and did a double take. Three young men were slumped over inside, blood streaked down their faces and neck, drenching the fronts of their white T-shirts, said Paul J. Browne, the New York Police Department's chief spokesman. The stunned walker spotted a couple walking down the street and urged them to look inside the car. "He finds two other people and he says, "I think these are dead people. What do you think?" " Mr. Browne said. The police declined to identify the witnesses, who flagged down a patrol car. Mr. Browne said investigators thought the victims - identified as Luis Catalan, 25, of the Upper East Side; Amaury Rodriguez, 30, of Washington Heights; and Heriberto Suazo, 26, also of Washington Heights - were dealers who had stolen drugs from rivals and might have been killed in retaliation. The police said they thought the gunman was seated in the back seat of the BMW, behind the driver's seat, when he fired, possibly with a revolver. Mr. Rodriguez, the owner of the BMW, was behind the wheel and was shot three times in the shoulder, chest and neck, the police said. "The shots were fired inside the car with the windows up and the doors closed," Mr. Browne said. This is a block that has no commercial activity and no residential activity. He added, "It's probably one of the least trafficked blocks, certainly in that part of Manhattan." Mr. Catalan, who was shot in the left temple and left arm, was in the back seat. Mr. Suazo, wearing a Yankees cap, was found in the front, head slumped against the passenger window, the police said. The police said they found no drugs or weapons in the car. Last year, narcotics officers arrested Mr. Suazo after searching his car and his apartment in Yonkers, finding what they said was 12 pounds of marijuana and two loaded handguns. He was charged with first-degree criminal possession of marijuana, worth an estimated $300,000 on the street, and criminal possession of a weapon, according to the police. The police had arrested Mr. Catalan 10 times on charges including marijuana possession and aggravated, unlicensed operation of vehicle. Mr. Rodriguez had a record of 25 arrests, dating to 2001, on charges that included assault with a deadly weapon, driving while under the influence, and criminal possession of marijuana and a gun. On Friday, the police released pictures from a surveillance camera of the suspected gunman. He was wearing a crisp white T-shirt, which police said he put on after discarding the shirt he had been wearing. Sheelagh McNeill contributed research.