Drug lord may have hired David Ortiz shooter over alleged affair with his wife

America has been rocked by the shock shooting of sports icon David Ortiz as a report claims revenge over an affair was the motive.

Boston Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File)

Authorities in the Dominican Republic believe baseball legend David Ortiz was shot by two police officers hired by a drug lord who thought the former Red Sox slugger was having an affair with his wife, according to a report.

Three law enforcement sources have confirmed the motive to the Daily Mail. The local drug lord has not been identified.

Police have so far arrested Eddy Feliz Garcia but the probe is ongoing, the news outlet reported.

Ortiz, who is recovering from surgery — in which parts of his intestines and colon, as well as his gall bladder, were removed — is married to Tiffany Ortiz and has three children.

It was unclear if his family was with him in the capital, Santo Domingo, where he was ambushed Monday (AEST) at the Dial Bar and Lounge, according to the Daily Mail.

Ortiz, who also suffered liver damage, will be flown from the Dominican Republic to a hospital in Boston as soon as possible aboard a Red Sox jet, according to ESPN.

David Ortiz with his wife Tiffany and daughter Alex before his final game at Yankee Stadium. (Photo by Billie Weiss/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images)

Chilling video showed the moment Ortiz was shot, leaving him slumped on the ground as other patrons fled in terror.

Ortiz can be seen at an outside table with another man when a gunman runs up behind him — a puff of gun smoke marking the moment he shoots him in the back.

The 43-year-old slugger turns in shock as he stumbles out of his seat, falling to the ground as everyone else runs for cover.

The suspect — identified by local news station CDN 37 as Eddy Feliz Garcia, 23 — was caught and beaten by the crowd at the bar, according to Dominican National Police Director Ney Aldrin Bautista Almonte.

Ortiz was rushed into surgery at the Abel Gonzolez Clinic, where he reportedly pleaded, “Please don’t let me die, I am a good man.”

He was in stable condition and doing “fine” Tuesday.

Investigative police collect evidence at the site where Ortiz was shot. (AP Photo/Luis Gomez)

Ortiz complained about the lack of security in his native Dominican Republic in 2015.

“I like to go to my country, and I know that people love you and take care of you,’’ Ortiz, aka “Big Papi,’’ told an ESPN sportscaster in the interview, conducted in Spanish, according to the Dominican newspaper Listin Diario.

“But [the street hustlers] are doing their thing, and they are not in their right mind, no matter who is who, and I do not want to walk with an AK-47 over a car there, I do not want to go full of guns there because I’m not a gunslinger, and I’m not a problem of any kind.”

The retired Boston baseball big shot took a bullet to the back around 8.50pm.

In the 2015 interview, Ortiz, 43, said he hoped that the DR’s national head of police would take steps to boost security.

“We cannot live in that anxiety that every time you go out of your house, a [thug] comes and takes away what you have on you,’’ the All-Star hitter said.

“Many people are losing their lives. Our country is a diamond that we have to take care of and defend fully and hope that things improve.”