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The other day I mentioned that the story surrounding the shooting of Red Sox icon David Ortiz has had more twists and turns than a Formula 1 road course.
This assessment was reinforced a day later when an 11th suspect was arrested in the murder-for-hire plot (11TH?!) and was followed up by Dominican officials claiming that David Ortiz was NOT the intended target of the shooting.
On Friday, the story hopped back in the cockpit for a few more laps as the alleged “intended target” identified by Dominican officials, an individual who was sitting at a table with Ortiz at the Dial Bar and Lounge at the time of the shooting, has come out calling the claims of Ortiz being shot in a case of “mistaken identity” completely unfounded.
According to Dominican Republic Attorney General Jean Alain Rodriguez (pictured on the right below), the “intended target” of the shooting is a man named Sixto David Fernandez. The reason given was that Fernandez’s cousin, a wanted fugitive named Victor Hugo Gomez Vasquez, tried to kill him because he believes Fernandez reported him to Dominican drug investigators and U.S. authorites in 2011.
When questioned about the situation by Zol 106.5 FM in the Dominican Republic, Fernandez told the radio station, “I’m just a businessman. I have a garage shop.”
The Boston Globe reports…
Fernandez made no mention of his cousin during the radio interview last Friday but did tell the station that he was eager to speak with law enforcement.
“I don’t have a single enemy,” he said. “I don’t know where these rumors came from.”
The authorities’ announcement Wednesday that the gunman had mistakenly shot Ortiz was met with skepticism by some Dominicans and close observers of the case, who noted that Fernandez bears little resemblance to Ortiz, one of the most recognizable people in the country.
Fernandez, in his radio interview last week, foreshadowed that commentary, telling the station, “Logic exists. David and I are two very different people physically.”
One of the suspects in the shooting of Ortiz, Rolfi Ferreira-Cruz, was charged Thursday with drug and firearm possession in New Jersey.
Victor Hugo Gomez Vasquez, an alleged associate of Mexico’s Gulf Cartel, who allegedly ordered the shooting from the United States, is now the second person the media has reported as the organizer of the assassination plot.
CBS News previously reported that Dominican authorities claimed the scheme was masterminded by a fugutive named Alberto Miguel Rodriguez Mota.
Like I said…
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