Anti-gang unit section commander Col Charl Kinnear was shot dead outside his home in Cape Town on Friday afternoon.
Kinnear was working on several high-profile investigations and was the investigating officer in an extortion case involving alleged underworld figure Nafiz Modack, the murder case of biker boss Tim Lotter and the murder case of Cape Town attorney Pete Mihalik.
Sources told TimesLIVE they believed the attack on Kinnear was a hit.
He had received several threats to his life and last year suspects were apprehended outside his home in an alleged plot to throw a grenade at it.
The shooting comes just two days after police minister Bheki Cele announced the creation of a steering committee involving the City of Cape Town, the police, the Hawks and the provincial community safety department to tackle the city's expanding extortion threat.
The shooting also follows the murder of Lotter's associate and fellow Satudarah biker gang member, Stefan Venter, in Gordon's Bay last week by a gunman who fled on a motorcycle.
This is a developing story.
TimesLIVE
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