Scammer
Banned
Baltimore Orioles pitcher Alfredo Simon said the shooting was an accident.
- Baltimore Orioles pitcher Alfredo Simon surrendered Monday to police and was jailed in the northern Dominican Republic town of Puerto Plata after being accused in the shooting death of a 25-year-old man on New Year's Day.
"In truth that young man was my friend, like a brother," Simon said of the victim, Michael Esteban Castillo. "It wasn't a thing like we began arguing and I started shooting. It was some accident; it happened by accident," Simon said, speaking at the police station where he turned himself in. "That's why I came here -- to open my soul," he said.
Simon, who surrendered to Dominican National Police, is also accused of wounding Castillo's 17-year-old brother, Starlin. The injuries to the brother are not life-threatening, police said.
Simon's lawyer, Carlos Olivares, said the major league baseball player may not have been to blame.
"A group of 14, 15 people shot up in the air, including my client," he told reporters. "So, they planted the thesis that it could have been him."
He said Simon fired the gun into the air and then left the park where the killing occurred oblivious to what had happened.
"He understood that nothing had happened at the moment. And 45 minutes later, when he was eating at a some restaurant or discotheque, somebody tells him, 'Hey, you're the one who killed so-and-so,'" Olivares said.
A ballistics report is expected to determine if the fatal bullet came from the athlete's gun.
"We understand that the truth will come out," Olivares said.
"I want them to investigate my firearm and investigate the others that went off and, if I am responsible, they know that it was not intentional," Simon said.
But the mother of the victim had no sympathy for Simon.
"This boy is crazy," Juana Almonte told Telesistema TV. "Where there are so many people, why would someone pull out a firearm? It could have been his family."
Puerto Plata District Attorney Victor Mieses said Monday that he was seeking three months of incarceration against Simon, which local reporters said was granted to ensure he does not flee.
Puerto Plata Assistant District Attorney Juan Carlos Hernandez, who is handling the case, said of Simon, "So far he's the one. There's no doubt about the incident."
Hernandez added that it's "normal" to seek temporary incarceration while investigating shooting deaths.
Police spokesman Maximo Baez said Simon turned in his gun as part of the investigation into the shooting in the Los Salados section of the town of Luperon, in the province of Puerto Plata, early Saturday.
Simon was accompanied by Olivares and by free agent second baseman Julio Lugo.
"He called me, and I wanted to give him a hand because it's in difficult moments that one should help a friend," Lugo told a reporter.
Simon, 29, hails from Santiago, about an hour south of Puerto Plata. He joined the Orioles in 2008.
The Baltimore Orioles declined comment.