Motive still unknown in Ortiz shooting

The suspected gunman and the accomplices who ambushed and shot former Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz in the back Sunday night — leaving him hospitalized in intensive care with serious internal injuries — were paid less than $8,000 by unnamed criminals to carry out the coordinated attack, authorities in the Dominican Republic said Wednesday.

While the alleged shooter and five other suspects have been detained, and the handgun used in the attack recovered, the critical question of a motive remained unanswered.

“The investigation continues,” Dominican police chief Ney Aldrin Bautista Almonte said at a news conference Wednesday. “We are at less than 72 hours (since the attack), and you see the advances we have already made. Certainly that will continue.”

Ortiz, 43, was resting in the ICU at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, where he is expected to remain for at least several days. He has undergone two surgeries — one in the Dominican Republic in the immediate aftermath of the attack, the other at Mass General on Monday night — to remove his gallbladder and part of his intestines and repair his liver.

Ortiz “continues to recuperate today,” his wife, Tiffany, said in a statement on Wednesday. “Yesterday and this morning, David was able to sit up as well as take some steps. His condition is guarded and he will remain in the ICU for the coming days, but he is making good progress toward recovery.”