Former rugby league star Garry Sullivan has been arrested after he was accused of hiding in Queensland for decades after an armed robbery and shooting at Melbourne’s Chadstone Shopping centre.
The 78-year-old appeared before Southport Magistrates Court on Thursday after being arrested during coordinated police raids on Queensland’s Gold Coast.
Victoria Police said the former New South Wales representative was arrested as part of an Armed Crime Squad investigation into an armed robbery and triple shooting at Chadstone Shopping centre in 1994.
A number of mobile phones, two laptops and a quantity of cash were also seized during the raids.
Detectives alleged Sullivan had been living a ‘quiet life’ in Southport for about the past 20 years.Â
The arrest followed a public appeal for information earlier this month as Armed Crime Squad detectives reopened the case based on new information.
Police have arrested former rugby league star Garry Sullivan in relation to an alleged shooting in 1994
Sullivan is also accused of causing intentional serious harm and casuing intentional harm
According to the investigators, two Armguard employees, attended the shopping centre cinema to collect the weekend’s takings.
The pair were carrying three bags of cash when they allegedly confronted by a singular offender wearing a balaclava and armed with a handgun and cardboard box.
Police alleged the then 54-year-old guard was shot in the lower legs, with the bullet striking his right ankle before deflecting into the shoe of the second employee.
A 40-year-old Doveton man who attempted to help during the robbery was also shot in the leg, suffering life-threatening injuries.
All three men were taken to hospital for treatment for gunshot wounds.
Sullivan has been charged with armed robbery, intentionally causing serious injury, two counts of intentionally causing injury, reckless conduct endangering life, theft, common law assault, carrying a pistol without a licence, and dealing with propery suspected to be the proceeds of crime.
At the Magistrates Court, Sullivan spoke only to confirm his identity before agreeing to being extradited to Victoria.
He will be returned to Melbourne where he will face court on June 1.
