David Ortiz won’t stay away from home forever.
The Boston Red Sox legend’s lawyer, Jose Martinez Hoepelman, told The Boston Globe on Tuesday his client will return to the Dominican Republic after he recovers from injuries he sustained earlier this month in a shooting. Doctors at Boston’s Massachusetts General Hospital upgraded Ortiz’s condition to “good” Tuesday, according to his wife Tiffany, and his gradual progress suggests he’ll be in the Dominican Republic again before too long.
“Without a doubt, David Ortiz loves the Dominican Republic and he will return to his country once he’s recuperated,” Hoepelman said.
A gunman shot Ortiz on June 9 in an apparent murder-for-hire plot. Authorities, as of Tuesday, had arrested 10 suspects allegedly connected with the shooting and they identified one of them, Gabriel Alexander Perez Vizcaino, as the man who paid the alleged hitmen to shoot Ortiz.
Hoepelman expects more arrests in the ongoing case.
“Almost all of the people involved (in the shooting plot) have already been arrested,” he said. “Almost all of them.”
The Ortiz shooting rightfully prompted widespread concern for his safety in the Dominican Republic. Nevertheless, the incident won’t keep the 43-year-old away from the place he loves.
