SANTA DOMINGO (Reuters) – The alleged shooter of David Ortiz has been arrested along with four others in a group offered nearly $8,000 to kill the former Boston Red Sox star at a Dominican Republic bar, authorities said on Wednesday.
The arrests came as Ortiz, 43, recovered in a Boston hospital following a second round of surgery on Tuesday, according to his family, which said he was sitting up and had taken a few steps.
The plot to kill Ortiz, a national hero in the Dominican Republic, was more complex than initially thought and involved two men on a motorcycle working with two other groups of people in cars, National Police chief Ney Aldrin Bautista Almonte told reporters.
Dominican Republic Attorney General Jean Alain Rodriguez identified Ramon Martinez Perez as the man suspected of jumping off the back of a motorcycle on Sunday night and shooting Ortiz in the torso.
Bautista said the group was offered 400,000 Dominican pesos ($7,830) to carry out the contract killing.
“It didn’t just involve two people, more people took part,” Bautista told a press conference.
Another man linked to the plot, Luis Alfredo Rivas Clase, nicknamed “The Surgeon” remained at large, Bautista said. Rivas Clase is also being sought over an April, 2018 shooting in Reading, Pennsylvania, local U.S. media reported.
Bautista declined to give a motive for the shooting or say who hired the attackers.
Ortiz, widely known as “Big Papi,” is a sports legend in Boston for his role in three World Series baseball championships as well as his profane but inspiring remarks in the days after the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.
He retired in 2016 after hitting 541 career home runs, which ranks 17th all-time in Major League Baseball.