Re­put­ed gang leader Ce­cil “Squeeze” Skeete, who was mur­dered near his Co­corite home on Sun­day, was warned by po­lice that he was be­ing tar­get­ed and was of­fered pro­tec­tive cus­tody but he re­fused, Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Gary Grif­fith re­vealed yes­ter­day.

“It is un­for­tu­nate what has hap­pened. We did get in­for­ma­tion pri­or to that there was a plan to kill Mr Skeete. We had spo­ken to him. The mat­ter, how­ev­er, is be­ing thor­ough­ly in­ves­ti­gat­ed,” he said.

“We did all that could have been done. Re­mem­ber there is some­thing (called) wit­ness pro­tec­tion where the per­son can be pro­vid­ed that. If the per­son re­fus­es that, there is noth­ing the po­lice can do.”

Grif­fith said de­spite re­ports in cer­tain me­dia out­lets, Skeete had been one of his in­for­mants. He al­so claimed Skeete had learned of a plot to un­der­mine his po­si­tion as Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice.

“He was ac­tu­al­ly work­ing with us for us to ex­pose this mat­ter. This mat­ter is still how­ev­er be­ing in­ves­ti­gat­ed. We have a lot of in­for­ma­tion that he pro­vid­ed for us where­by he has ac­tu­al­ly stat­ed that per­sons in the po­lice ser­vice and the me­dia . . . there was a plan to pay him over $50,000 to change his af­fi­davit,” said Grif­fith.

A month ago, Skeete was the sub­ject of a front-page sto­ry which claimed he was choked and cuffed by the Com­mis­sion­er when he was de­tained for ques­tion­ing last June . Skeete lat­er re­cant­ed the claims made in the sto­ry and swore to an af­fi­davit deny­ing that the in­ci­dent ever took place.

At about 9.20 pm on Sun­day, Skeete, 50, was shot dead near his home at Free­dom Street, Co­corite.

Po­lice sources said he was a re­put­ed mem­ber of the Ras­ta City gang and was out on bail on charges of arms and am­mu­ni­tion pos­ses­sion. The charges were laid against him in 2017.

In Au­gust, Skeete’s son, Ronell Pierre. was shot and killed on the West­ern Main Road, Co­corite.