Ute sought over Vic gangland shooting

A ute is a focus of the police hunt for the shooter of a Melbourne gangland lawyer as the slain man's family prepare for his funeral.

Joseph "Pino" Acquaro, 55, was shot dead while walking to his car near the corner of Lygon Street after closing his Gelobar cafe in the early hours of Tuesday last week.

His body was later found by a rubbish truck driver.

Mr Acquaro was a criminal lawyer who had represented a raft of prominent gangland figures in Victoria and had been warned there may be a lucrative contract on his head.

Police on Tuesday said their hunt for the apparent executioner could be helped if they find a light-coloured ute seen driving east on Barkly Street in Brunswick East, about the time of the shooting.

Detective Inspector Mick Hughes told reporters the ute's lights were off, and another vehicle, possibly a taxi, drove past it.

Meanwhile, Mr Acquaro's funeral service will be at 10.30am on Wednesday at St Mary's Star of the Sea Catholic Church in West Melbourne.

He will be buried afterwards in Yarraville.

As his friends and family prepare to farewell Mr Acquaro, his partner, Marisa Di Liso, posted a tribute in Tuesday's Herald Sun newspaper.

"What a beautiful world this would be if there were more people like you, a gentleman in every sense of the word," she wrote.

"How blessed and thankful I am to have experienced a love so true."

Mr Acquaro was known to police but not as a convicted person.

Court documents show there was a $200,000 contract on his head, and he had been warned by police his life was in danger.

This bounty had reportedly increased to half-a-million dollars in the months before he was gunned down.

The father-of-three had strong ties within the Calabrian community and had been president of Melbourne's Italian Chamber of Commerce and the Reggio Calabria Club.

The execution-style hit on Mr Acquaro is being investigated by Victoria Police's gangland squad, Purana Taskforce, which was set up in 2003 in response to the city's underworld war.