Police: Suspects in David Ortiz Shooting Were Offered $7,800 to Do It

Dominican police authorities have revealed that the suspects in the shooting of Red Sox legend David “Big Papi” Ortiz were offered thousands of dollars to commit the crime.

According to CNN, Dominican National Police Director Ney Aldrin Bautista Almonte made the revelation in a statement while also confirming that all of the shooting suspects but one has been arrested.

The authorities reportedly believe that seven men were involved in Sunday’s shooting and the Dominican attorney general, Jean Alain Rodríguez, disclosed that the alleged gunman is in custody.

Per Daily Mail, Luis Alfredo Rivas Clase aka The Surgeon is the suspect still at large and police have also declared a mysterious woman known as “The Venezuelan” or Red wanted in connection with the shooting.

PROGRESS IN THE INVESTIGATION

"These individuals, each one of them, all of them, have (sic) been jailed and will go before a court," Bautista Almonte said of the suspects including the alleged gunman, 25-year-old Rolfy Ferreyra Cruz who has reportedly confessed to shooting Ortiz.

Bautista Almonte said that the suspects were offered about $7,830 for the hit on Ortiz, 43.

The police revealed that they’d recovered the gunman’s weapon from where it was buried in the home of one of the suspects.

THE FIRST SUSPECT

CNN reports that Eddy Féliz Garcia, the first suspect to be taken into custody, has been charged with being an accomplice to attempted murder and appeared in court on Tuesday.

Garcia was captured immediately after the attack on Sunday when an angry crowd chased him down as he tried unsuccessfully to escape on his motorcycle. They beat him up and held him down until the police arrived. Further investigation revealed that Garcia was the motorcycle rider who allegedly brought the shooter to the scene.

SPECULATIONS ON WHY HE WAS SHOT

Dominican police authorities have declined to offer a possible motive for the shooting, but there has been a theory that it was orchestrated by a Dominican drug lord who suspected the baseball legend was having an affair with his wife.

Ortiz’s rep, Leo Lopez, however, debunked the speculation, claiming the shooting was carried out by contract killers:

“There is no doubt that it was an act of hired killers. If we had known that there was a dangerous situation, he [David Ortiz] would not have been there at that moment.”

THE SHOOTING

Big Papi, as he’s affectionately called, was with a friend at a bar in his hometown of Santo Domingo around 8:50 pm on Sunday, June 9, when he was shot in the back. The bullet came out through his stomach, causing damage to his liver and small intestine. New surveillance footage shows how close the gunman was when he shot the baseball star in the back.

After undergoing surgery at a clinic in the Caribbean nation, Ortiz was airlifted on Monday to Boston’s Massachusetts General Hospital where he went in for a second procedure.

Following the surgery, the MVP’s wife Tiffany said in a statement that her husband was “stable, awake, and resting comfortably” in intensive care “where he is expected to remain for the next several days.”

Lopez also announced on Tuesday that the 10-time All-Star had taken his first steps with his wife and children by his side.

Although he first played with the Minnesota Twins, Ortiz is best known for his time with the Boston Red Sox, where he spent 14 of his 20-season career and retired in 2016.