Two weeks after announcing the schism Smith was attending a meeting at the West Belfast UDA's headquarters with Tommy Lyttle when he noticed a sniper on a nearby roof. Smith, who was wearing a bullet-proof vest, opened his coat as if to challenge the sniper to fire but was seriously wounded when the sniper did shoot twice, hitting him both times with armour-piercing bullets. With Smith in hospital Tyrie called a meeting of the leading figures in the Shankill UDA and managed to convince Lyttle and other leading figures that Smith was too divisive a figure to remain in charge.
