Victims in Rhode Island hockey arena shooting were suspect’s ex-wife and son

A person who opened fire during a youth hockey game at an ice rink in Rhode Island on Monday was specifically targeting family members, and killed their ex-wife and one son, Pawtucket Police Chief Tina Goncalves said Tuesday.

Goncalves said the victims were the shooter’s ex-wife Rhonda Dorgan and adult son Aidan Dorgan. Three others were injured — the parents of the shooter’s ex-wife and a family friend, Goncalves said.

Police said the shooter, identified as 56-year-old Robert Dorgan, who went by the names Roberta Esposito and Roberta Dorgano, died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. Police didn’t provide details on the shooter’s gender identity.

Goncalves said there was “no indication” there would be violence at the ice rink in Pawtucket on Monday afternoon, adding that Dorgan had been to many hockey games before without incident.

Gender identity apparently was a contributing factor to Dorgan’s wife filing for divorce in 2020 after nearly 30 years of marriage.

Court filings show Rhonda Dorgan initially wrote “gender reassignment surgery, narcissistic + personality disorder traits” as reasons for filing, but crossed that out and wrote “irreconcilable differences which have caused the irremediable breakdown of the marriage.”

Court documents show that two shared the same last name even prior to getting married. Authorities have not provided additional details about this.

WATCH | Shooting may be related to family dispute:

‘Family dispute’ may be behind Rhode Island ice rink shooting: police

Three people are dead, including the suspect, after a shooting at an ice hockey rink in Pawtucket, R.I., on Monday that also left three others injured, police said. Pawtucket Police Chief Tina Goncalves said it appears the violence was ‘targeted’ and possibly tied to a family dispute.

A 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 constant criticism of transgender people is “why we Go BERSERK.”

Investigators had spoken to nearly 100 witnesses as of Monday evening as they attempted to piece together what happened earlier that afternoon inside the Dennis M. Lynch Arena in Pawtucket, a few kilometres outside Providence.

Goncalves credited an unnamed “good Samaritan” who intervened, bringing the attack “to a swift end.”

She said Tuesday at least three bystanders were able to contain Dorgan but said Dorgan was still able to reach for a second firearm, and then died of a self-inflicted gunshot, Goncalves said.

Worked for shipbuilding facility

Dorgan was an employee of General Dynamics Bath Iron Works, a ship building facility in Bath, Maine, that contracts with the U.S. Navy, David Hench, a spokesperson for the shipyard, told The Associated Press Tuesday. Hench did not respond to questions about Dorgan’s job title or how long they worked at the shipyard.

The AP also spoke to some of Dorgan’s former colleagues. One, Destiny Mackenzie, recalled that Dorgan often went by Roberta at work, and that Dorgan’s hockey-playing son often came up in conversation but did not mention an ex-wife.

Mackenzie described Dorgan as having a bad temper that sometimes led to screaming matches with colleagues.

Dorgan briefly served 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 the lowest military rank.

Michael Steven, who recorded video after the shooting, recalled crying parents trying to locate their children outside the arena and young people being taken out on stretchers.

“It happens far too often in our nation,” Steven told reporters.

Monday’s shooting came nearly two months after the state was rocked by a shooting at Brown University that left two students dead and wounded nine others, as well as a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor. Authorities later found Claudio Neves Valente, 48, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at a New Hampshire storage facility.

“Our state is grieving again,” Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee said in a statement. “As governor, a parent, and a former coach, my heart breaks for the victims, families, students, and everyone impacted by the devastating shooting at Lynch Arena in Pawtucket.”