As of now, no one really knows what to believe surrounding the shooting of Ortiz.
The mysterious shooting of David Ortiz remains a mystery shrouded in more rumor than fact. Now the attorney general of the Dominican Republic has released his version of the incident, but fans are still scratching their heads.
Before the dust had settled in the shooting of Ortiz in the Dominican Republic, rumors were flying as to why the former Red Sox slugger was shot in his homeland. Some said it was a robbery gone bad, others said it was because he had been messing with a woman linked to a drug dealer.
Now the attorney general of the Dominican Republic is saying it’s a case of mistaken identity.
According to Attorney General Jean Alain Rodriguez and Maj. Gen. Ney Aldrin Bautista Almonte, director of the Dominican Republic’s national police, the target was actually Ortiz’s friend, Sixto David Fernandez, who allegedly turned in his drug dealing cousin, Victor Hugo Gomez, into Dominican drug investigators eight years ago.
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Fernandez had been sitting with Ortiz when he was shot on June 9th, and now 11 people have been arrested in the shooting so far.
Rodriguez and Almonte say that a blurry photo given to the hitman caused the mistaken identity.
“It was a badly lit photo taken minutes before the attack,” said Rodriguez.
Yet despite the photo, it’s hard to agree with authorities. Ortiz is dark skinned and much bigger than the fairer skinned, and slimmer, Fernandez.
While Ortiz is recovering in a hospital in Boston where he had his gallbladder and part of his intestine removed, police, according to ESPN, are still searching for Gomez and three others. Per ESPN.com:
“Police are still looking for at least three other suspects: a woman known as The Venezuelan or Red; Luis Alfredo Rivas Clase, aka The Surgeon, who is wanted for a 2018 shooting in Reading, Pennsylvania, and was believed to be driving a car used to stalk Fernandez; and Alberto Miguel Rodriguez Mota, whom authorities believe paid the hit men. Authorities have said the coordinator of attack was offered 400,000 Dominican pesos, or about $7,800.”
