Canterbury Bulldogs premiership hero Matt Utai is recovering in hospital after undergoing emergency surgery having been shot twice in a drive-by attack in Western Sydney.
The Daily Telegraph reported the ex-Bulldogs player was the man gunned down in an early-morning attack outside his home in Greenacre.
Police are treating it as a “targeted” attack but multiple reports suggest Utai himself may not have been the intended target, with police investigating possible links of a family member — believed to be Utai’s son — to organised crime.
NSW police superintendent Rodney Hart did not confirm Utai’s identity but told a press conference on Tuesday a 44-year-old man was in a “serious but stable” condition and was undergoing surgery.
He said the man was found writhing on the front lawn in “a fair amount of pain” but was able to speak to police when they arrived. It appeared he had been shot twice — once in the lower leg and once in the “upper shoulder/chest” area — just before 6am local time, with Supt Hart describing it as a “brazen ambush of this male person who was heading to his vehicle to go to work.”
The Telegraph on Wednesday reported Utai had had surgery and was expected to survive, although any complications he may face remained unclear.
Meanwhile, string of violent attacks on homes have rocked Greater Western Sydney in the 24 hours since the incident, with police probing a possible gangland connection to Tuesday’s shooting at Utai’s home.
Police launched Strike Force Halesowen after a string of firebombings, car fires and shootings were reported across Sydney’s west on Wednesday morning, Newswire reports.
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