The former chair of a town council near Agrigento in Sicily was killed in a town street with three pistol shots to the head in a local bar on Sunday.
Former Favara council chief Salvatore Lupo, 45, had a criminal record.
The owner of some residences for the elderly, Lupo was arrested in 2017 in a probe into a social cooperative company, and suspected of having stolen half of his employees' wages.
A year earlier he was placed under investigation in connection with alleged mistreatment of disabled minors at a home at Licata.
In 2011 his car was torched.
Police are seeking the lone killer.
The barista is in shock and was unable to tell police anything.
Police have so far ruled out a Mafia hit.
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