Authorities now suspect mistaken identity in case of David Ortiz shooting
Attorney General Jean Alain Rodríguez Sánchez and the director of the National Police, Ney Aldrin Bautista, shared their preliminary conclusion that the shooting that injured David Ortiz at the Dial Bar & Lounge of Av. Venezuela on Sunday, 9 June 2019, was a case of mistaken identity. They made the statement during a press conference on 5:30pm on Wednesday, 19 June 2019, before the Corpus Christi holiday in the Dominican Republic.
The Attorney General and the Police director say the target of the hired killer was David Ortiz’s close friend, Sixto David Fernández Vásquez, who was seated at the same bar table with him on the evening of the shooting. Fernández had arrived early to prepare for the get-together with Ortiz at the bar. David Ortiz was a frequent visitor at the bar.
At the time of the shooting, Sixto David Fernandez shared a table with David Ortiz, TV commentator Jhoel Lopez, urban singer Secreto El Famoso Biberón, and María Yeribel Santiago García.
According to the hypothesis of the Attorney General and Police, a 25-year old hitman was hired to shoot Fernández. The accused hitman Rolfy Ferreras Cruz (who has also been referred to as Ramon Martinez Perez, Bayan, Sandy) has a criminal record in the United States and had just arrived a month before from the US.
The authorities say the motive was a long-time grudge carried by fugitive Victor Hugo Gomez Vásquez, a cousin of Sixto David Fernández Vásquez. Fernández Vásquez is the owner of an autopaint shop in the National District. Gómez Vásquez blamed his cousin for telling on him to the National Drug Control Agency in 2011. This led him to serve time in La Victoria jail. The authorities presented Gómez Vásquez as the intellectual author of the crime. Gómez Vásquez is at present a fugitive of US justice sought for drug trafficking.
Surveillance camera footage was presented to back the hypothesis the authorities reached after the arrest of around a dozen people.
The Police identified Alberto Miguel Rodriguez Mota as the crime coordinator. He was at the scene of the crime hours before Sixto David Fernandez and then David Ortiz arrived.
The Police presented a video and the blurred smartphone photo sent to the hitman two hours before the crime to justify how the accused hitman, Rolfy Ferreras Cruz, had confused Ortiz with Fernández. When the picture was sent, David Ortiz had not arrived to the bar.
The surveillance video presented by the Police also shows how Rodríguez Mota is the only person at the scene of the crime who did not run for cover after the shot was fired, and instead watched over how Ortiz collapsed and even picked up his beer for another drink.
The Police explained that Alberto Miguel Rodríguez Mota and Victor Hugo Gómez Vásquez met in the La Victoria jail when they both served time.
As reported in El Dia, the Dominican authorities have not been able to locate the whereabouts of the three identified as the masterminds in the case: Luis Alfredo Rivas Clase (El Cirujano), Alberto Miguel Rodríguez Mota and Víctor Hugo Gómez Vásquez. Police director Bautista said during the Wednesday press conference that they are in contact with the US Marshals Service and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to locate the fugitives.
The hypothesis presented on 19 June 2019 by the Police and Attorney General has been met with generalized local and international skepticism. TV investigative journalist Nuria Piera in her investigative show on Saturday, 22 June 2019, presents many questions the Police and Attorney General version leave unanswered. Piera asks why the hitman would wait for Dial Bar to fill up with patrons when his alleged target, Sixto David Fernández was hanging out there for two hours before the crowds and the arrival of David Ortiz?
CNN journalist Patrick Oppmann was shut up by Attorney General Jean Alain Rodríguez when he referred to a clause in a Monday, 17 June 2019 prosecutor request for pretrial custody against Gabriel Alexander Perez Vizcaino (El Hueso), one of the 11 under arrest in the case, that referred to David Ortiz being followed by the criminals. Radio talk show host Marino Zapete airs the incident. After that question, Rodriguez would practically close the floor to more questions. Subsequently, the Attorney General would send an explanatory letter to Oppman citing the pretrial custody document was written before the new evidence that convinced the authority Ortiz was not the target.
Meanwhile, in Boston, Tiffany Ortiz, wife of David Ortiz shared that her husband was moved out of the intensive care unit at Massachusetts General Hospital. Tiffany Ortiz said in a statement released by his former team, the Boston Red Sox: “He remains in good condition and continues to recover under the care of Drs. David King and Larry Ronan.”
Source: DR1, Nbcnews
June 24, 2019
Category: DR News |