Boxing champ to undergo surgery

National amateur boxing champ Adam Willett is scheduled to undergo surgery Friday for a gunshot wound he suffered in his North Bellport neighborhood, according to his coach.

Willett, 28, has been in critical condition at Stony Brook University Medical Center since the Wednesday attack in which he was shot once in the chest at close range.

Mike Murphy, Willett's coach at Atlantic-Veterans Memorial Boxing Club in Shirley, said Willett was in a drug-induced coma but responded when medication was briefly lifted.

"He was able to squeeze a nurse's hand a little," Murphy said. "He's a tough kid."

The surgery scheduled for Friday is to evaluate sutures from a previous surgery and continue to repair the chest wound. Doctors are also still looking for the bullet that damaged an artery near his heart and caused other damage.

Willett, who works as a Bellport High School security guard, was wounded at a strip mall on Montauk Highway a few blocks from his home on Wednesday evening. Police and his family said he was with two girls from the school just before he was shot. The girls asked him for help because they "were being hassled" by men outside a store, Murphy said. The men left and quickly returned before one of at least two male suspects pulled a gun and fired, according to police.

No arrests have been made, and Suffolk detectives again called on the public's help on Friday in identifying the shooter.

Willett grew up in North Bellport and started boxing after high school, where he also played football and ran track. He rose quickly in the amatuer ranks, winning national amateur heavyweight championships four times. He was also an alternate on the U.S. Olympic Team at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

Police are also investigating an earlier altercation involving Willett at the school is connected to his shooting. They ask anyone with information to contact Fifth Squad detectives at 631-854-8552 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-220-TIPS.