The shooting took place Monday at Dennis M. Lynch Arena in Pawtucket, a city just north of Providence, during a youth hockey game, according to Pawtucket Police Chief Tina Goncalves. Goncalves said the incident left three people dead, including the shooter, and three more hospitalized in critical condition.
In describing the moments of chaos inside the arena, Goncalves told reporters that authorities believe someone helped bring the scene to an end by intervening and trying to subdue the shooter. Goncalves said the shooter was at the arena to watch a family member’s hockey game and that the shooting appears to have been targeted, possibly involving a family dispute.
Goncalves said the shooter died from an apparent self-inflicted gun wound. She also said investigators were still investigating and were working to piece together what happened, including speaking with “scores of witnesses” who were inside the arena during the shooting and reviewing video taken from the hockey game.
Goncalves identified the shooter as Robert Dorgan, adding that he also went by the name Roberta Esposito and was born in 1969. She said investigators did not yet provide further details about the shooter or the victims beyond saying it appeared that both of the people who died besides the shooter were adults.
Outside the arena after the shooting, tearful families and high school hockey players in uniform were seen hugging before boarding a bus to leave the area, as investigators continued their work nearby. Goncalves said unverified footage circulating on social media showed players diving for cover and fans fleeing after popping sounds were heard, and authorities were still assembling the timeline.
The shooting came nearly two months after Rhode Island was shaken by a gun violence tragedy at Brown University, where authorities later said Claudio Neves Valente, 48, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at a New Hampshire storage facility following killings that included a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor. Pawtucket Mayor Don Grebien said the two incidents were not related, calling it “very tragic” that the victims were young people watching a game with their families.