Prosecutors identify man who allegedly paid for hit on David Ortiz, but motive remains a mystery
Dominican prosecutors have identified a fugitive named Alberto Miguel Rodriguez Mota as the man who allegedly paid a group of hitman to shoot David Ortiz in the Dominican Republic, the Associated Press reports.
Why Ortiz was selected for the attack still has not been disclosed, though authorities reportedly say they are closing in on both Mota and his motive.
The AP reports that Gabriel Alexánder Pérez Vizcaíno, nicknamed “Bone,” is accused of being the liaison between Mota, the alleged hit men and another suspect who reportedly sent a picture of Ortiz from prison to identify him as the target. The price paid for the shooting was reportedly 400,000 Dominican pesos (around $7,800).
Their efforts resulted in Ortiz being shot in public outside a nightspot in his hometown of Santo Domingo. The life-threatening gunshot wound reportedly required immediate surgery to remove Ortiz’s gallbladder, patch his liver and sew his intestines back together, during which Ortiz lost 1.5 liters of blood.
Pérez Vizcaíno, the alleged go-between man for the shooting, reportedly sold the iPhone he used to plan the attack for $180 to a woman a day after the shooting.
10 men have already been arrested in connection to the shooting, including Pérez Vizcaíno and alleged gunman Rolfi Ferreira Cruz. The 24-year-old shooter insisted to the public from his jail cell that Ortiz wasn’t the intended target, though the picture of Ortiz used to plan the alleged hit implies otherwise. “Shouting through the windows of a Dominican prison” also ranks pretty low among sources you can trust.
Ortiz remains hospitalized since the shooting, though he’s reportedly in stable condition and now recovering in Boston.
More from Yahoo Sports:
