The victims in the Rhode Island hockey rink shooting were the suspect’s ex-wife and son
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A man who opened fire during a youth hockey game at a Rhode Island ice rink on Monday was targeting family members, killing their ex-wife and one son, Pawtucket Police Chief Tina Goncalves said Tuesday.
Goncalves said the dead were the gunman’s ex-wife Rhonda Dorgan and eldest son Aidan Dorgan. Three others were injured – the gunman’s ex-wife’s parents and a family friend, Goncalves said.
Police say the shooter, identified as Robert Dorgan, 56, whose names are Roberta Esposito and Roberta Dorgano, died of a suspected self-inflicted wound. Police did not release information about the shooter’s gender.
Goncalves said there was “no indication” of violence at the ice rink in Pawtucket on Monday afternoon, adding that Dorgan has attended many hockey games without incident.
Gender identity apparently contributed to Dorgan’s wife filing for divorce in 2020 after nearly 30 years of marriage.
Court filings show that Rhonda Dorgan originally listed “gender reassignment surgery, narcissistic traits + personality disorder” as reasons for filing, but then went overboard and listed “irreparable misunderstandings that resulted in the irreparable breakdown of the marriage.”
Court records show the two shared the same last name before they were married. Authorities did not provide further details in this regard.
Three people were killed, including the suspect, after a shooting at an ice hockey rink in Pawtucket, RI, on Monday that also left three others injured, police said. Pawtucket Police Chief Tina Goncalves said it appears the violence was ‘targeted’ and may have been related to a family dispute.
The day before the shooting, under the name Roberta Dorgano, Dorgan responded to anti-transgender posts by actor Kevin Sorbo and Infowars conspiracy theorist Alex Jones by saying that the constant criticism of transgender people is “why are we going BERSERK.”
Investigators have spoken to nearly 100 witnesses since Monday evening as they try to piece together what happened earlier this afternoon at the Dennis M. Lynch Arena in Pawtucket, a few miles outside of Providence.
Goncalves thanked an unnamed “good Samaritan” who intervened, ending the attack “quickly.”
He said on Tuesday at least three bystanders were able to stop Dorgan but he said Dorgan was still able to get a second gun, and he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, said Goncalves.
He worked for a shipyard
Dorgan was an employee of General Dynamics Bath Iron Works, a shipyard in Bath, Maine, that has a contract with the US Navy, David Hench, a spokesman for the shipyard, told The Associated Press on Tuesday. Hench did not answer questions about Dorgan’s job title or how long they worked at the shipyard.
The AP also spoke to some of Dorgan’s colleagues. Another, Destiny Mackenzie, recalled that Dorgan often accompanied Roberta to work, and that Dorgan’s hockey-playing son often came up in conversation but never mentioned his ex-wife.
Mackenzie described Dorgan as an aggressive person who would sometimes end up yelling at his teammates.
Dorgan served briefly in the Marine Corps, enlisting on April 26, 1988, according to military records provided by the service, but that service was short-lived. Less than three months later, on July 13, Dorgan was separated from the service with a low military rank.
Michael Steven, who recorded the video after the shooting, remembered the parents who were crying and trying to get their children out of the stadium while the youngsters were being taken out on stretchers.
“It happens often in our nation,” Steven told reporters.
Monday’s incident occurred nearly two months after the state was rocked by a shooting at Brown University that killed two students and injured nine others, as well as a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor. Authorities later found Claudio Neves Valente, 48, dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at a warehouse in New Hampshire.
“Our state is grieving again,” Rhode Island Governor Dan McKee said in a statement. “As a governor, parent, and former coach, my heart goes out to the victims, families, students, and everyone affected by the shooting at Lynch Arena in Pawtucket.”
