John kinsella, 53, died at the st helens linkway close to the m62 in merseyside on saturday morning.
Police trust his killer wore a high-visibility jacket and become on a mountain motorcycle.
At some point of a 2008 trial, gerrard's father stated in a letter that kinsella stopped a gangster from threatening his son.
Paul gerrard defined kinsella as a "fixer" who had intervened while the gangster, known as the psycho, had threatened to shoot the previous footballer within the legs in 2001.
Advertisement
Courtroom escape
Kinsella, from rainhill, turned into convicted of taking household goods in a raid at a haulage yard in grantham, lincolnshire in 2006.
Kinsella absconded from a 2008 trial by using strolling out of the court docket all through a lunch break, he was arrested again 10 months later.
Merseyside police stated kinsella was shot between 06:30 and 07:30 bst on saturday and appealed for everyone with statistics to touch them.
They defined the wrongdoer as slim, approximately 6ft (1.8m) tall and carrying dark clothes underneath the excessive-visibility jacket.
