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Cops nab bikie killing suspect at hospital

Rebecca GredleyAAP
A man has been arrested at a Canberra hospital over the death of bikie boss Pitasoni Ulavalu.
Camera IconA man has been arrested at a Canberra hospital over the death of bikie boss Pitasoni Ulavalu.

A suspect in the death of a bikie boss has been nabbed by police after attending a Canberra hospital with another man seeking help for gunshot wounds.

Comanchero commander Pitasoni Ulavalu was killed in an early morning bar brawl at the Kokomo's bar in the city last month.

A 26-year-old will be charged with the stabbing after being arrested on Wednesday morning.

He is due to face court on Thursday.

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"A man presented at hospital with multiple gunshot wounds, at the time he was accompanied by the man that will face the court for murdering Pitasoni Ulavalu," Detective Superintendent Scott Moller told reporters.

"We've been looking at a group of men for some time and the opportunity at the hospital presented itself and he was arrested."

Two other men, aged 22 and 23, were also arrested and will face court charged with affray.

Police will oppose bail for all three men.

Det Supt Moller expects further charges to be laid over the bikie boss's death.

"The really troubling factor of this is that it involves members of outlaw motorcycle gangs, they're not willing to discuss things with police usually so this is a particularly complex matter," he said.

The arrested men have links to the Comancheros and police expect the killing to have both local and international ramifications.

"What we're seeing locally is the violence playing out, and as police we're doing everything we can now to stop it," Det Supt Moller said.

The ACT has 35 active bikie members, about 50 per cent less than a year ago.

"We need to stop the recruitment of people into these gangs because realistically they're not delivering teddy bears at Christmas," he said.

"They're shooting people, they're stabbing people, they're bashing people."

The man who went to hospital with gunshot wounds is in a stable condition after undergoing surgery.

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