David Ortiz Speaks On Shooting for the First Time: ‘I Thought I Was Having a Nightmare’

David Ortiz gave his first interview since being shot in an alleged failed hit in the Dominican Republic. Big Papi goes deep on details of the night he was shot and isn’t afraid to be vulnerable in front of Univision cameras. 

“I almost died, man,” a teary-eyed Ortiz explained of the terrifying incident. “I was in a coma. People were criticizing me as if I deserved to be killed.”

“I was feeling something that I had never felt before and that was just the feeling of trying to survive,” he continued.

Ortiz was out with a friend in a bar in Santo Domingo when a gunman opened fire, allegedly trying to kill Ortiz’s friend Sixto David Fernandez. Ortiz explained what it was like to be shot, and noted that he was lucky to have the help of other people in the bar.

“When the bullet hit me, the first thing I felt was like a sting. The first five seconds I thought I was having a nightmare. [Then] a man named Eliezer, who I am very thankful for, he helped me and took me to the hospital,” he recalled.

Ortiz was released from the hospital at the end of July and has been recovering at home. He made his first appearance at Fenway Park, a place where Ortiz is something of a legend, just earlier this week. Police have arrested several people in connection with the shooting, including a supposed mastermind who orchestrated the assassination attempt. Ortiz said that he’s certain he was merely in the wrong place at the wrong  time. 

“I don’t have enemies, I don’t know why anyone would want to do this to me,” he said.