A member of the Solomon Islands National Peace council, Sir Fredrick Soaki, was shot dead last night in the Malaita provincial capital of Auki.
Police commissioner, William Morrell, says Sir Fredrick, who was also a former commissioner of police, was part of a team working on the demobilisation of special constables.
Commissioner Morrell says Sir Fredrick was at a restaurant when he was shot dead in Auki.
"He went over there, I think on Sunday or Monday, and yesterday evening he was having a meal with other members of the National Peace Council and the United Nations Development Project and one police officer and a masked man walked into the restaurant and shot him in the side, and he died of those injuries on his way to hospital."
Commissioner Morrell says there is an assumption that the murder is connected with police efforts to demobilise the 800 special constables.
He says, however, that a full investigation will be held.
The commissioner says the workshop that was to have been held in Auki today was cancelled but one on Guadalcanal is going ahead.
