Gunman shoots David Ortiz in the back at Santo Domingo bar; six-hour surgery under way

At roughly 8:50 p.m. on June 9, 2019, a man stepped off a motorcycle outside the Dial Bar and Lounge in East Santo Domingo and fired a single bullet into the back of retired Red Sox slugger David Ortiz. Ortiz underwent a six-hour operation in the Dominican Republic — losing portions of his intestines, colon, and gallbladder — before a medical flight arranged by the Red Sox brought him to Massachusetts General Hospital the following day. Dominican authorities later identified the suspected shooter as Rolfi Ferreira Cruz, originally from Reading, Pennsylvania, and alleged the attack was a paid hit solicited by drug trafficker Víctor Hugo Gómez — who, according to investigators, believed the intended victim, a friend of Ortiz seated at the same table, had betrayed him to authorities…