In a western Sydney shooting, the president of the anti-Islam group ‘Australian Defence League’ became the victim of a targeted attack on his home last night.
Nathan Abela, 24, said “up to seven” shots were fired into his Greystanes townhouse around 11.15pm in what police said they believed was a targeted attack. He said a man walked to his door and asked if he had the right house before firing into his front door and windows, forcing him to duck for cover.
Nathan Abela
The ADL are an anti-Islam group who are very vocal in their opposition to the religion, regularly posting derogatory informative updates to their near 2,000 Facebook followers. They have also held small scale protests in Sydney’s CBD protesting the religion’s presence in Australia.
Mr Abela appeared on Ray Hadley’s 2GB show less than a week ago, with Mr Hadley describing him as a “liar” and a “grub” for secretly recording a conversation with his personal assistant and posting it on YouTube.
He regularly uploads videos to his YouTube channel, showing him phoning people to ask if they are ‘proud of being a Muslim’ or hands out anti-Islam flyers.
Mr Abela said he was on the computer when he heard people knock on his door. “When I heard the knocks I walked to the door knowing full well it wasn’t the police or anyone else, I could tell by their voice,” he said.
“They said ‘Nathan, Nathan, is that you?’ and I said yes, and as soon as I said yes I knew I had to dive to the other side of the room. “ “That instant it was like bang, bang, bang, bang, I dove from one side of the room to the other, laid low to the ground, slid, and then got into position to defend myself and ready for whatever and that was it, they must have just fled.”
Mr Abela was treated by paramedics at the scene for a minor shoulder injury sustained while performing an “army roll” to dodge the shots.
“I believe I tore every ligament in my shoulder because of the way I avoided getting shot. I wasn’t really thinking about the pain at the time. It happened very fast.”
Police had last night cordoned off the home while forensics officers investigated. No arrests have been made, but witnesses reported seeing a silver Audi driving away from the home around the time of the shooting.
