David Ortiz wants answers.
The Boston Red Sox legend is launching his own investigation into the June 9 shooting, which hospitalized him for almost two months, his spokesman Joe Baerlein confirmed to The Boston Globe’s Aimee Ortiz and Bob Hohler. David Ortiz has hired former Boston Police Department commissioner Ed Davis to assemble a team of private investigators and dispatch them to the Dominican Republic, where the shooting took place. Ortiz primarily is interested in determining a motive for his shooting.
“He’s damn interested in finding out what really happened,” Baerlein said.
Dominican law enforcement authorities claim Ortiz was shot in a case of mistaken identity and believe he wasn’t the intended target of the murder-for-hire plot. Authorities have arrested 14 people they suspect were involved in the shooting. Another suspect remains at large.
However, skepticism over authorities’ account of the shooting exists, largely due to officials’ changing stories in addition to widespread corruption in the country and distrust of law enforcement.
Baerlein said police have yet to fully persuade Ortiz their findings reflect the truth of his ordeal.
“David has been carefully monitoring the government and police investigation,” Baerlein said. “He had no basis for a long time to challenge their theory of mistaken identity. However, as new facts continue to come up, it lends some optimism that there may be some other conclusions that are drawn before it’s over about why David was shot.”
David Ortiz now wants Davis, who was Boston’s top cop between 2006 and 2013, to lead a team of investigators from the U.S. and the Dominican Republic to monitor developments and review law enforcement activities on the ground, according to Holder and Aimee Ortiz.
Meanwhile, David Ortiz will continue working toward a full recovery from the life-threatening incident.
