Shooting at Rhode Island youth hockey game leaves 3 dead, including shooter, and 3 more wounded
PAWTUCKET, R.I. (AP) — Three people, including the gunman, were killed in a shooting at a Rhode Island youth hockey game and three more were hospitalized in critical condition Monday night, authorities said.
Someone helped bring a quick end to the violent scene Monday afternoon by intervening and trying to subdue the shooter, who was at the arena to watch a family member’s hockey game, Pawtucket Police Chief Tina Goncalves told reporters. Stating that the attacker died due to an apparent gunshot wound, the official noted that the authorities’ investigation continues.
“It appears this was a targeted incident, a domestic dispute that may have occurred,” he said.
Goncalves said that the attacker was Robert Dorgan, who goes by the name Roberta Esposito and was born in 1969.
The police chief did not provide further details about the shooter or the victims, except to say that both victims who died were adults.
He said investigators are trying to piece together what happened and have spoken to multiple witnesses who were at the Dennis M. Lynch Arena in Pawtucket, a few miles outside of Providence. They were also reviewing videos from the hockey game. Unverified footage circulating on social media showed players diving for cover and fans running from their seats after explosions were heard.
Outside the arena, tearful families and high school hockey players still in uniform were seen hugging each other before boarding buses to leave the area.
Monday’s shooting comes nearly two months after Rhode Island was rocked by a gun violence tragedy. Brown UniversityWhere a gunman killed two students and injured nine others. The attacker then fatally shot a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Authorities later found 48-year-old Claudio Neves Valente dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at a storage facility in New Hampshire.
“The fortunate thing is that the two events are not related, but they are very tragic,” Pawtucket Mayor Don Grebien said. “These are high school students. They were doing an activity, playing with their families, watching, having a fun time, and it turned into this.”
Pawtucket is located just north of Providence and just below the Massachusetts state line. Pawtucket, with a population of just under 80,000, was until recently known as the home of Hasbro’s headquarters.
___
This story has been corrected to show that the attack occurred on Monday, not Tuesday.
___
Associated Press writer Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska, contributed to this report.
