It was a daring, cold-blooded, execution-style murder rarely seen in Singapore.

Nightclub owner Lim Hock Soon was shot in his home on Feb 15, 2006, in front of his family.

When Superintendent (Supt) Abdul Halim Osman's team of officers from the Criminal Investigation Division arrived at the scene, the body was on the floor with five bullet holes.

The scene at the apartment was chaotic, with Mr Lim's wife, daughter and maid in distress.

"We had to control the situation and manage the witnesses. It was important that we got as much information as possible from them," said Supt Abdul Halim, 55, who was investigation officer of the case then. He is now with the Tanglin Police Division.

It was also imperative that they managed the scene properly as the consequences were severe, he added.

A murder charge carries the death penalty.

"We had to be 100 per cent sure that we didn't make any mistakes," he said.

The police spent the next two to three days processing the scene, collecting evidence and speaking to the witnesses.

They found out the killer's nickname was Tony Kia and with that lead, they managed to establish the man's real name as Tan Chor Jin, 39, who was a member of the Ang Soon Tong gang. He was dubbed the "One-Eyed Dragon" because of his one blind eye.

But Tan had fled to Malaysia and the police relied on their counterparts there to nab him 10 days after the murder, said Supt Abdul Halim.

Tan was sent back to Singapore and tried. He was found guilty and hanged in 2009.

Despite having handled several other murder cases, Supt Abdul Halim considers the One-eyed Dragon case memorable for the sheer audacity of a killer who had shot a man in front of witnesses.

"I don't think we can find cases like this in Singapore. It was a very aggressive act, so we had to get him."