Dominican officials say there's 'no mystery' in American tourist deaths
Eleven American tourists died while vacationing in the Dominican Republic; Jeff Paul reports.
A Pennsylvania man raised allegations earlier this week that he was ambushed while on vacation at the same Dominican Republic resort where a Delaware woman claimed she was attacked and beaten by a hotel employee.
Robert Walker, of New Castle, told WPXI he traveled earlier this year to the Majestic Elegance resort in Punta Cana and, while walking back to his hotel room from the casino, he was jumped from behind by two robbers.
“I just started swinging, I am going nuts and they fled,” he said. “I go back to my room and I have a knot the size of a baseball and was concussed for a few days.”
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Walker said the assault occurred around the same time Tammy Lawrence-Daley said she was assaulted for hours inside a maintenance closet in late January. She alleged the attacker was wearing a resort uniform.
The Wilmington, Del., woman went public with the alleged assault on Facebook, posting gruesome photos of her injuries and sparking questions about the resort’s handling of the investigation and the safety of tourists at the hotel.
Dominican authorities said there were inconsistencies in her account of the alleged assault and said Lawrence-Daley refused to file a local police report. The hotel said earlier this month that the Delaware woman went public with her story after it refused her demand for $2.2 million.
A lawyer for Lawrence-Daley later accused the hotel of blaming the victim.
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In the case of Walker, he told WPXI that he went to hotel officials to report the alleged assault and that it “fell on deaf ears.”
“I am most upset with the hotel resort. I told them what happened, it fell on deaf ears,” he said.
It was not clear in the WPXI article if Walker filed a report with police in Punta Cana.
A spokeswoman for Majestic Elegance resort did not immediately return Fox News’ request for comment Saturday.
Walker’s allegations come amid a recent spate of deaths of American tourists to the Dominican Republic and the shooting of ex-MLB star David Ortiz in the island’s capital. These incidents have triggered questions about the safety of tourists in the Caribbean island.
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On Friday, Francisco Javier Garcia, the minister of tourism, appeared to downplay the deaths and castigate the media for turning the nine fatalities into "an avalanche of death."
In a later interview with Fox News, Garcia insisted the deaths were of natural causes but vowed any “disciplinary actions” would be taken if there was any negligence on the part of the resorts that led to the deaths.
Fox News' Elizabeth Llorente, Ryan Gaydos and Alexandra Deabler contributed to this report.
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