A university student with a history of volunteering was shot in bed in his family home in the latest suspected case of mistaken identity in Sydney’s underworld war.

The 23-year-old victim was named on Tuesday as Marco Tapia, a biomedical engineering student at the University of Technology Sydney and volunteer with Engineers Without Borders UTS, according to LinkedIn.

Marco Tapia was named as the victim in multiple media reports. Photo: LinkedIn

Tapia had no criminal history and had experience volunteering in youth programs, including with his local Hillsong church.

Police are exploring whether the fatal home invasion in Glen Alpine, near Campbelltown in Sydney’s south-west early on Tuesday morning, was another case of gangland mistaken identity.

Authorities believe multiple attackers entered the family home at about 3.40am on Tuesday and shot the victim dead before fleeing the scene.

Emergency services found Tapia with a gunshot wound — reportedly in the neck — and could not save him.

Police confirmed the man’s family were in the home at the time of the attack.

The unknown offenders remain on the run, as an alleged underworld identity suggested in a social media post that the attackers had ”popped the wrong person”.

Acting Superintendent Gretchen Atkins said on Tuesday morning that police were treating the incident as a targeted attack.

Asked whether the killers were mistaken in their target, she said it was too early in the investigation to establish that.

The victim was not known to police for anything more than a traffic offence, Atkins said.

”A young man has lost his life today, and that’s obviously just tragic,” she said.

“There were family who were home, and as I said, they’re assisting us and being very, very helpful,” she said.

The post allegedly about Tuesday’s deadly shooting. Photo: Instagram

An exiled, alleged co-founder of criminal network Coconut Cartel posted to Instagram little more than an hour after the shooting.

”Popped the wrong person. Didn’t even get the right house,” Iziah Utai wrote.

On Saturday, Utai posted a video dancing with a gun in the aftermath of non-fatal shooting of Emad Alameddine.

Alameddine was a relative of alleged crime figure Bilal Alameddine. He was shot in South Granville on Saturday night.

The Alameddine network, a notorious crime family, and the Coconut Cartel, an emerging crime-for-hire network, are allegedly embroiled in a feud, spilling into shootings across Sydney in recent months.

Atkins said she was aware of the social media posts and suggested everything was under consideration. She urged the local community to assist police.

”Any small piece of information is what we may get the break that we’re actually looking for. At this point in time we don’t have that information,” she said.

A report into the young man’s death will be prepared for the coroner.

There have been several alleged mistaken-identity criminal incidents in Sydney in recent months.

In February, 85-year-old grandfather Chris Baghsarian was allegedly kidnapped and murdered by people who had the wrong target. Some 11 people have been charged in relation to the incident.

In May 2025, innocent Condell Park plumber John Versace was executed in his driveway in what police believe was a case of mistaken identity.

-with AAP