Boxer in coma after being shot while aiding girls

Boxer Adam Willett is a lighting-fast southpaw, a local legend in North Bellport who won the first of many Golden Gloves tournaments just months after stepping in the ring. He went on to national prominence and represented the United States at the Olympic Games.

His natural reflexes weren't fast enough Wednesday when he stepped up to aid two teenage girls.

Yesterday, he lay in a coma at Stony Brook University Medical Center, put there by a gunshot wound that damaged an artery near his heart.

Mike Murphy, his longtime coach, remained hopeful Willett, 28, would recover. He recalled a long-ago state Golden Gloves bout when Willett went the distance in the ring despite dislocating his shoulder in the first round.

"He's a fighter, he's a tough kid, he's in unbelievable shape," Murphy said.

Recently returned from training in Florida, Willett was working as a security guard at Bellport High School on Wednesday, said his uncle, Hanif Abdullah, 54.

Just after 7 p.m., Willett went to a strip mall on Montauk Highway, a few blocks from his home. Two girls there who attend Bellport "were getting hassled" by at least two men, Murphy said.

"Everybody at the school knows him. They [the girls] call him over and the guys back off," Murphy said. Willett exchanged words with the men, who sped off in a car but returned moments later.

"He yelled at the two girls to get out of there and they ran," said Det. Sgt. Bryan McMenemy of Suffolk's Fifth Squad. One of the men approached Willett, pointed a handgun at him, and rifled his pockets. He then fired and fled, police said.

Willett grew up in North Bellport and started boxing after high school at Murphy's Atlantic-Veterans Memorial Boxing Club in Shirley. He is a four-time U.S. amateur heavyweight champ and was an alternate on the U.S. Olympic Team at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. Willett was also on the U.S. boxing team that competed in the 2005 World Amateur championships in China.

Suffolk detectives said they are investigating whether an earlier altercation involving Willett at the school is connected to his shooting. Police have strong leads as well as video surveillance footage, but "we need people's help to make an arrest," said McMenemy.

Suffolk County Legis. Kate Browning (WF-Shirley), who has criticized the county for understaffing police in the area, said she met Willett at the gym several years ago and would see him sometimes jogging in his lace-up boxing shoes. "It's breaking my heart. Here is a young man that is looked up to by a lot of young people in the community," she said, adding crime at the strip mall is "a constant problem."

Police ask anyone with information to contact Fifth Squad detectives at 631-854-8552 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-220-TIPS. With John Valenti