David Ortiz is back in the welcoming arms of Boston after being shot Sunday night at a nightclub in the Dominican Republic.
The legendary Red Sox slugger was flown to Boston and taken by ambulance Monday to Massachusetts General Hospital about 24 hours after he was shot in the back in his native Santo Domingo, where he underwent surgery to remove portions of his intestines and gallbladder.
Ortiz – also known as Big Papi – had a second surgery at the Boston hospital and was stable, awake and resting comfortably Tuesday morning, his wife, Tiffany Ortiz, said.
Questions remain about the shooting. Here’s what we know and don’t know:
How did the shooting unfold?
Surveillance footage from the Dial Bar and Lounge shows an area of packed tables. Clubgoers are drinking, mingling and fiddling with their phones when a shooter approaches from the top of the screen, a short video clip shows.
Only a shooter’s legs are visible when a shot is fired and apparently hits Ortiz in the back. Ortiz slumps to his left and falls out of his chair. Frightened bystanders knock over chairs as they flee.
Ortiz’s agent, Fernando Cuza, who has seen the video, confirmed to CNN that the man who falls from his chair is Ortiz.
“The bullet went through his stomach,” Felix Durán Mejia, a spokesman for the Dominican Republic National Police, told CNN.
Television host Jhoel Lopez, who was with Ortiz, was also shot, according to his wife, Liza Blanco.
A suspect is in custody – who is he?
Police initially said multiple people were in custody after the shooting, but by Monday morning, police said they were holding one person: Eddy Vladimir Féliz García.
The National Police said Féliz García and another man approached the Dial Bar and Lounge on a motorcycle before at least one opened fire, hitting Ortiz and Lopez.
Féliz García and the other man tried to drive away, but the motorcycle fell to the pavement, police said.
The crowd attacked Féliz García and handed him over to police, while the second man fled, police said. Féliz García was treated at Hospital Dr. Dario Contreras in Santo Domingo and is now in custody, police said.
Ortiz does not know Féliz García, said Leo Lopez, Oritz’s media assistant.
Féliz García has a 2017 drug charge and lives in Las Caobas, West Santo Domingo, police said.
The motive for the shooting is unknown.
Why did the Boston Red Sox send a plane?
The night he was shot, Ortiz was taken to the Clinica Abel Gonzalez, where he was in intensive care after being treated for bleeding in his liver and having portions of his intestines and gallbladder removed.
The Red Sox sent a medical air ambulance to pick up Ortiz. He arrived Monday night and was taken to Massachusetts General.
Boston loves Ortiz. Of his 20 seasons in Major League Baseball, he spent 14 there as the Red Sox’s designated hitter.
In 2004, he helped the Red Sox to its first championship since 1918, ending the “Curse of the Bambino.” Fans, mostly tongue-in-cheek, blamed the team’s decades-long championship drought on the 1919 decision to trade legend Babe Ruth, aka the Bambino, to the rival New York Yankees.
Ortiz was also on the Red Sox title teams of 2007 and 2013. He was named World Series MVP in 2013.
The 2013 championship came just months after the Boston Marathon bombings that killed three people and wounded more than 200 others. Ortiz emerged as a champion for the city in the bombings’ aftermath, and his tribute to Boston the day after police captured the bomber gained national attention.
“This jersey that we wear today, it doesn’t say Red Sox. It says Boston,” Ortiz said, standing on the infield as the crowd cheered police officers who were on the field.
“This is our f***ing city, and nobody’s going to dictate our freedom. Stay strong,” he said.
What’s the status of the investigation?
The National Police have not formally interviewed Ortiz, said spokesman Capt. Luis Manuel Pimentel, adding that the former ballplayer was “pretty beat up.” Police will speak to Ortiz soon, he said.
Ortiz is confident the shooting was not a robbery attempt, said Lopez, the media assistant.
Investigators are examining evidence in the case, including the suspect’s Bajaj Platina brand motorcycle.
Santo Domingo’s Ministry of Interior and Police announced Monday a “provisional closing” of the shooting scene after the weekend shooting. The ministry’s Control of Alcoholic Beverages program initiated the closure.
The club has been given three days to give its account of what happened as police investigate the shooting, the ministry said.
Police have been falsely linked to the shooting after an officer’s ID card was shared on social media implicating him in the crime, the National Police said, denying any agents were involved.
“Our institution has no link to the event which occurred in the club Dial in the Venezuela Avenue,” the National Police said in a news release, cautioning against speculation and the spread of false information.
CNN’s Patrick Oppmann reported from Santo Domingo, and Amir Vera wrote in Atlanta. CNN’s Maria Ramirez Uribe, Chandler Thornton, Rebekah Riess,, Jill Martin, Jason Hanna, Jonny Hallam and Eliott C. McLaughlin contributed to this report.
