According to information obtained by LTV, the victim is Mārtiņš Bunkus, an insolvency administrator and attorney. The identity of the victim was later confirmed by police who added that in 2016 he had reported being subject to threats.
The State Police confirm that at 08:40 this morning on Aizsaules street 1 a man driving a white off-road vehicle was shot - possibly from another car seen in the area.
Video posted to social media showed a van on fire nearby shortly afterwards.
Crime scene investigators continue to work at the scene, which is close to the main military cemetery in the city.
A murder investigation is underway and ongoing. Police are appealing for any eyewitnesses or those who have any information about what happened to contact the State Police on +371 67014002.
While the job description of "insolvency administrator" does not sound very controversial, the sector in Latvia has often been linked to questionable incidents and schemes operating on the edge of, or even beyond, the law.
LTV broadcast "De facto" in March reported that Bunkus was linked to the notorious Trasta komercbanka (TKB) insolvency. Trasta was a bank that had its license to operate pulled over allegations of massive money laundering and cases arising are still making their way through legal processes and the courts.
Later in the day President Raimonds Vējonis commented on the murder after a meeting of the National Security Council.
"Latvia is a law-abiding country, where such an event, brutally using a firearm in broad daylight, killing a person and endangering the safety of people around them, is extraordinary. Such behavior is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. I am convinced that our law enforcement agencies will be able to professionally investigate this murder and bring the perpetrators to justice," Vējonis said as social media drew inevitable parallels with the type of banditry that was a feature of society in the early 1990s.
