According to private investigators hired by the Red Sox slugger to investigate the assault that nearly killed him, the drug dealer, who was jealous and disrespectful of David Ortiz, shot him to death at a nightclub in the Dominican Republic in 2019.
The findings of former Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis, reported by the Boston Globe on Saturday, contradict the theory developed by Dominican prosecutors.
Davis told the newspaper that he identified drug dealer Cesar Peralta as the mastermind behind the shooting, placing a bounty on Ortiz and sanctioning the assassination group that tried to kill him. The Dominican authorities did not cooperate with the private investigation.
Peralta is being held without bail in Puerto Rico on unrelated charges of conspiracy to import cocaine and heroin. In 2019, the US Treasury declared Peralta a drug lord, and in December he was extradited to the United States.
Ortiz spokesman Joe Berlein told the Globe that Davis’s findings were covered up for Ortiz’s safety until Peralta was in U.S. custody.
Peralta was not charged with shooting Ortiz. Peralta’s lawyer, Joaquin Perez, said Peralta had nothing to do with the attempt on Ortiz’s life.
“As bad as Cesar Peralta is, it’s not even close to saying that he has anything to do with it,” Perez said.
Pérez called Ortiz and Peralta “close friends”. Ortiz told the Globe that he only knew Peralta superficially and that he was “sad, confused, angry and in all sorts of emotions” when he received the news from Davis and Rick Prado, a former high-ranking CIA official involved in the investigation.
Dominican authorities said the target was Sixto David Fernandez, who was sitting at the same table as Ortiz when he was shot. Authorities said hitmen confused Fernandez with Ortiz, one of the most popular Dominican ballplayers. Thirteen people have been charged with shooting Ortiz and are awaiting trial in the Dominican Republic.
Berlein said Ortiz is looking forward to further legal action in Dominican and US courts to clarify why he was attacked.
10-time All-Star Ortiz helped the Red Sox end an 86-year league drought in 2004. He retired after the 2016 season with 541 home runs and the team retired his No. 34 uniform. He was drafted to baseball. Hall of Fame in his first ballot appearance in January.
Ortiz maintained a home in the Boston area and lived in the Dominican Republic for part of the year. He was severely wounded in a shootout in June 2019. Doctors in the Dominican Republic removed Ortiz’s gallbladder and part of his intestines after the shooting, and he underwent further surgery in the US.
Ortiz told the Globe he wants to know why someone might want him dead, but “most importantly, thank God I’m alive.”