BOSTON — A Venezuelan woman has been apprehended on charges linked to the 2019 shooting of baseball legend David Ortiz, a crime that has kept the Dominican Republic Police busy for nearly five years. According to Boston 25 News, María Fernanda Villasmil Manzanilla, 25, was taken into custody by Interpol with Dominican officials stating that she was wanted with a red notification.
While the precise charges Manzanilla is facing remain unclear, her arrest by Interpol adds another layer to the famed incident where David Ortiz, lovingly known as Big Papi, was shot at a Santo Domingo bar while surrounded by friends. In the attack that nearly claimed the life of the Boston Red Sox icon and beloved Dominican native, wounds were grave enough that Ortiz needed medical care all the way in Mass General Hospital in Boston, as CBS News Boston reports.
The narrative surrounding the shooting of David Ortiz, a convoluted tale entangled with hitmen, mistaken identity, and rumored drug traffickers' jealousy, reads like a script stripped straight from a thriller—only this drama played out in the harsh light of reality. Dominican authorities initially spun a story where hitmen targeted Ortiz’s cousin, Sixto David Fernandez, only to confuse him with the larger-than-life Ortiz. But private investigators, hired by Ortiz, suggested an alternative plotline involving a Dominican drug trafficker who bore envy towards the slugger—a theory which sent ripples through the public consciousness.
In response to the harrowing ordeal, Ortiz himself pondered, "That was a question I asked myself. I’m a good person, I’m a friendly guy. I want to make sure people around me are taken care of," according to a 2019 interview obtained by Boston 25 News. The incident, a stark intrusion into his life's narrative, pushed Ortiz to adopt a more guarded outlook.
The saga's legal chapter concluded this past December when a Dominican court handed down convictions to ten individuals involved in the shooting. Santo Domingo's First Collegiate Court imposed sentences ranging from 5 to 30 years for crimes including criminal organization, attempted murder, and use of illegal firearms.
