SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic — Police say a suspected drug trafficker offered to pay $30,000 for the shooting that wounded baseball slugger David Ortiz, who was sitting alongside the intended victim.
National Police spokesman Frank Felix Duran Mejia told a news conference on Sunday that the alleged mastermind of the attack had so far paid only $10,000 to people hired to arrange the killing of Sixto David Fernandez, his cousin.
Duran Mejia said Victor Hugo Gomez Vasquez feared Fernandez would tell police of his presence in the Dominican Republic and blamed the cousin for an earlier arrest. Duran Mejia has denied trying to kill either Fernandez or Ortiz, who remains hospitalized in Boston.
Police say they’ve arrested 14 people in the case and are searching for others.