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On Sunday night, David Ortiz was rushed to a hospital in his native Dominican Republic after being shot in the back at a bar in Santo Domingo in what initially appeared to be a robbery gone wrong.
Translation:
According to @CDN37, 2 young men on a motorcycle injured @davidortiz in a robbery attempt. They report that he was apparently shot in the back and that it exited outside his stomach. https://t.co/lXWgU89bWF— 3030 (@jose3030) June 10, 2019
However, over the past week, new details have emerged in the increasingly bizarre saga thanks to rumors that the shooting was actually ordered by a drug lord in connection to a woman who initially claimed she didn’t know Ortiz before alleging she was actually his mistress.
Police say they have evidence that the shooting was a well-coordinated hit carried out by at least one man in pursuit of an almost $8,000 bounty that had been placed on Ortiz’s head. However, new details have emerged that suggest things aren’t as they seem.
According to TMZ, a Dominican news outlet managed to track down the jail cell of the man who officials say was the shooter, but if he’s to be believed, he inadvertently shot Ortiz while in pursuit of someone else who was wearing similar clothes.
El imputado Rolfy Ferreras Cruz, indicado por las autoridades como la persona que disparó en contra del ex pelotero de Grandes Ligas; David Ortiz, dijo hoy que baleó por error al deportista. “Solo me dijeron el color de ropa” declaró Rolfi, desde la celda del destacamento PN. pic.twitter.com/5mrvlbUnrg
— Informate809 (@informate809) June 14, 2019
In the clip, the man—who is identified as 25-year-old Rolfi Ferreira Cruz—admits to being the shooter but says Ortiz fell victim to a case of mistaken identity before another man in the cell chimes in, saying, “Tell them it wasn’t meant for David.”
Ortiz was eventually transported to a Boston hospital for surgery and appears to be on his way to making a full recovery.
We’ll be keeping a close eye on the drama as the story continues to unfold.