David Ortiz, the retired baseball player who became one of the game’s most respected athletes while playing a key role in Boston ending its 86-year World Series drought, was shot in the Dominican Republic on Sunday, according to the country’s national police.

Ortiz, 43, was shot once in the back at a club in East Santo Domingo, the police said. He was in stable condition at a hospital on Sunday night.

His father, Leo Ortiz, told reporters that his son was out of danger and that the bullet did not hit any major organs. Ortiz’s media assistant, Leo Lopez, told ESPN that Ortiz underwent surgery for six hours and part of his intestines, colon and gallbladder were removed.

The gunman ambushed Ortiz, getting off a motorcycle and shooting the ballplayer in the back at nearly point-blank range, a police spokesman told The Associated Press. The suspect was captured and beaten by a crowd of people at the bar, and the police would wait for him to be treated before he is questioned, the spokesman said.