A hockey game in Pawtucket turned to tragedy on Monday afternoon when a shooter opened fire inside a packed ice rink, killing two people and critically injuring three others before taking their own life.
Police identified the shooter as 56-year-old Robert Dorgan, who also used the name Roberta and the last name Esposito, per the Daily Mail.
Authorities say Dorgan fired at least a dozen shots into the stands at Dennis M Lynch Arena around 2:30PM, roughly half an hour after the 2:00PM tournament began.
The event featured a co-op team made up of Coventry and Johnston students competing against a co-op squad from St. Raphael, PCD, North Providence, and North Smithfield schools.
Two people were killed, including a little girl, and three others remain in critical condition at a local hospital. The shooter is also dead.
The fatal shooting
A source with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives told Fox News that the gunman shot and killed their wife and opened fire on their three children before dying by a self-inflicted gunshot.
Police Chief Tina Goncalves said officers arrived within a minute and a half of the first reports and have since interviewed more than 100 witnesses.
“We're looking at all avenues,” Goncalves said, adding: “It's going to be a very busy 24 to 48 hours.”
Shooter’s identity and alleged family tensions come into focus
Chief Goncalves identified the gunman as Robert Dorgan, 56, who also used the alias Roberta Esposito.
Dorgan was the father of a student at North Providence High School, according to WPRI.
Authorities said the shooting stemmed from a 'family dispute,' and questions remain about what may have driven Dorgan to target his own relatives, per Sky News Australia.
Court documents obtained by WPRI reveal that Dorgan’s gender identity had been a source of friction within the family.
In early 2020, Dorgan told North Providence Police that they had recently undergone gender reassignment surgery and that their father-in-law wanted them out of their home because of it.
According to court records, Dorgan claimed the father-in-law threatened to 'have him murdered by an Asian street gang if he did not move out of the residence.'
The father-in-law was charged with intimidation of witnesses and victims of crimes and obstruction of the judicial system, though prosecutors later dismissed the charges.
Dorgan also accused their mother of assault and acting in a 'violent, threatening or tumultuous manner.'
She was charged with simple assault and battery and disorderly conduct, but that case was also eventually dismissed.
As these legal disputes unfolded, Dorgan’s then-wife, Rhonda, filed for divorce.
In initial court filings, she cited 'gender reassignment surgery, narcissistic + personality disorder traits,' before those grounds were crossed out and replaced with 'irreconcilable differences, which have caused the immediate breakdown of the marriage.'
The divorce was finalized in June 2021. Rhonda is now believed to be one of the victims of the shooting, WPRI reports.
Terrified families flee as shots ring out inside arena
The Dennis M Lynch Arena, home ice for the Johnson and Wales Wildcats hockey team, was packed with families, students and supporters when gunfire erupted.
Livestream footage captured spectators and players diving to the floor as approximately 11 shots rang out.
Other video showed the perpetrator in a white beanie walking down the stands and firing into the crowd.
Players on the bench scrambled to escape, some pushing to squeeze out of the box and ditching their skates.
Others vaulted over the rink barrier and sprinted for the locker room.
Coventry player Olin Lawrence recalled the terrifying moment.
“I was on the ice and I thought it was balloons at first - it was like 'bop, bop,' and I thought it was balloons, but this kept going - and it was actually gunshots,” he recounted.
“And after the gunshots, me and my teammates ran right to the locker room and we just bunkered up and we pressed against the door and we tried to stay safe down there.
"But it was very scary, we were very nervous.”
Fortunately, none of the players on the ice were physically harmed.
Still, the chaos extended beyond the rink.
An employee at a nearby Walgreens told WPRI that terrified children ran into the store screaming after the shots rang out.
Tragic photos showed parents clutching their children as they evacuated to the parking lot. Some children, still in their hockey uniforms, were seen crying.
A large yellow school bus and multiple ambulances were stationed outside as police roped off the crime scene. One victim was wheeled out on a stretcher.
A woman who identified herself as the shooter’s daughter told WCVB: “He shot my family, and he's dead now,”
She added that the alleged shooter 'has mental health issues.'