NSW Police confirmed officers responded to an emergency public place shooting call and were told a man had been shot by the occupants of an SUV, which then sped away from the scene.<\/p>\n
A short time later, police were called to Samuel Street, Wiley Park, following reports of a car fire where they found an SUV well alight.<\/p>\n
The fire was extinguished and the car has been seized for forensic examination.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe information I have received at the moment is that he suffered a gunshot wound to his lower leg and to the upper shoulder, chest area,\u201d Superintendent Rodney Hart told a media briefing outside Bankstown Police Station on Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was treated at the scene by ambulance, where he was stable, and he was taken to hospital, where he is currently in a serious but stable condition, and he is currently in surgery.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although not wanting to confirm Utai\u2019s identity, police have confirmed they believe the shooting was a targeted attack, and his family remain in danger.<\/p>\n
\u201cPolice have spoken to a number of neighbours and have canvassed the area for CCTV. Investigators from the Raptor Squad have attended this morning, and they have taken carriage of this crime, and a Strike Force has been established,\u201d Supt. Hart said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to reassure the community that we strongly believe that this is a targeted attack. I know, throughout the media this morning, a certain high-profile person\u2019s name has been put out as the victim.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, at this time, I cannot confirm who that victim is. The reason for that is that the person is a victim of a violent shooting. He is currently undergoing surgery in the hospital, and our main focus at this moment is not only to identify who is involved in this but to ensure he and his family are safe.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe person that is currently in hospital, he is known to police, but he has no criminal history. He has a small amount of traffic history, but at this stage, we do believe he may not be involved in any criminal activity.<\/p>\n
![\"Detectives](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/435612172e839841942c0c722da58f1c55c6379f.jpg\")
Detectives and forensics are on the scene investigating after a shooting took place on Macquarie Street in Greenacre. Credit: NCA NewsWire<\/p>\n
\u201cAs part of this investigation, investigators will be looking into who he is involved with, who his family may be involved with and any links there may be to organised crime.\u201d<\/p>\n
When quizzed about the circumstances leading up to and after the shooting, police confirmed it appeared Utai was preparing to head off to work and was standing on the front lawn of his house when the ambush occurred.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy understanding is he was on the front lawn, and he was in a fair amount of pain. He was able to speak to the police upon their arrival before the ambulance took over,\u201d Supt. Hart said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is definitely a concern, happening at 6am. There are people out and about going about their business. It is a brazen ambush of this male person who, from my understanding, was heading to his vehicle to go to work.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that the majority of these are linked to the underworld, to organised crime, but it is concerning when innocent people are being injured.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe the gentleman who has been injured lives at home with his wife and a number of children. I don\u2019t know the age of the children, but I believe at the time of the shooting, there were other family members within the house,\u201d Supt. Hart concluded.<\/p>\n
Police have established crime scenes at both locations, with Bankstown detectives treating both incidents as linked.<\/p>\n
Utai played 167 games in the NRL for the Canterbury Bulldogs and the Wests Tigers and was part of the 2004 NRL Premiership-winning Bulldogs side in their 16-13 victory over the Sydney Roosters.<\/p>\n
The compact winger was also crowned the Dally M Rookie of the Year in 2003 after scoring 21 tries in 27 games.<\/p>\n
2GB are reporting that CCTV shows five shots being fired at Utai who was hit by at least two bullets and people in the street are now packing their bags to temporarily relocate as crime gang wars escalate in the area.<\/p>\n
Crime Stoppers: 1800 333 000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former NRL star Matt Utai is reportedly fighting for life after being shot at least twice in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":490199,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,2733,1158,588,85],"class_list":["post-490198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-nsw","tag-police","tag-sport","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/490199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}