Five people are being held in connection to the shooting of retired baseball star David Ortiz.
Ortiz, 43, was shot in the lower back outside a club in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, on June 9.
Four people were arrested two days later about 100 miles northwest of the scene of the shooting, law enforcement sources told WBZ-TV. One of the four is the suspected shooter.
Video surveillance showed two men riding up to the bar on a motorcycle. One of them shot Ortiz from behind before fleeing the scene.
#BREAKING: VIDEO showing Dominican police arresting several suspects connected to the shooting of David Ortiz.
Sources tell me among the detained is the presumed shooter.
Arrests were made yesterday, 100mi NW of Santo Domingo.????: @hgomez27 – Hector Gomez @wbz pic.twitter.com/hFqjHUfhzG
— Anaridis Rodriguez (@Anaridis) June 12, 2019
The other man, Eddy Vladimir Feliz Garcia, was captured by bystanders and beaten until police arrived.
Garcia has been charged as an accomplice to attempted murder.
None of the other four have been named, including the suspected gunman.
Ortiz underwent emergency surgery after being rushed to a local hospital in an SUV by a man who was near the scene. After he stabilized, he was flown to Massachusetts General Hospital on Monday and underwent a second surgery there.
Leo López, David Ortiz’s public relations advisor: “Yesterday David was already smiling for the first time since the shooting. David recovery is evolving on a good pace, thanks god.”#ZDigital #ZDeportes @z101digital @ZDeportes
— Héctor Gómez (@hgomez27) June 12, 2019
Leo Lopez, a spokesman for Ortiz, told reporters that he took his first steps since being shot on Tuesday.
“David Ortiz is in stable condition, on a steady process of recovery. His recovery is going well,” Lopez said, reported Dominican reporter Hector Gomez. “David is already breathing normally, everything is going according to plan. David has walked already, helped by his brother Albania, and was then taken to back to his bed.”
Ortiz was in the intensive care unit at the hospital and was expected to stay there until at least Thursday.
Deivi Solano, Garcia’s lawyer, told the Boston Globe his client was a motorcycle taxi driver and did not know the intentions of his fare.
Solano said Garcia picked up the gunman in “good faith.”
“This boy did not do anything. He was totally surprised by what happened,” Solano said, adding that Garcia grew up admiring Ortiz, a native of the country.
“He is David Ortiz’s number one fan,” Solano said. “Since [Ortiz] won the World Series in 2004, he has cut out articles and pictures of Ortiz and put them on his walls.”
Justina Garcia, the suspect’s mother, also said that her son is innocent.
“We really like him, and my son and I are fans of his,” Justina Garcia told CNN. “My son had nothing to do with this.”
