The shooting on Monday stemmed from a family dispute. The shooter was also dead, officials said.
WASHINGTON — Two people were killed and others were injured in a shooting Monday at a ice rink during a high school hockey game in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, officials said.
The shooter was also dead from what appeared to be a self-inflicted wound, authorities said in a press conference.
One of the victims was killed at the scene at Dennis M. Lynch Arena, which is an indoor ice skating rink a few miles outside Providence. Four people were taken to a hospital, where one of the victims died. The other three victims were in critical condition, officials said.
Pawtucket Police Chief Tina Goncalves told reporters that someone helped bring a swift end to the violent scene by intervening and trying to subdue the shooter, who was at the arena to watch a family member’s hockey game.
Goncalves said that the shooting appears to have stemmed from a “family dispute.”
Goncalves identified the shooter as Robert Dorgan, who she said also went 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 for saying it appeared that both victims who died were adults.
She said investigators were trying to piece together what happened and speak with witnesses of the shooting inside Dennis M. Lynch Arena in Pawtucket, a few miles outside Providence. They were also reviewing video taken from the hockey game. Unverified footage circulating on social media shows players diving for cover and fans fleeing their seats after popping sounds are heard.
Outside the arena, tearful families and high school hockey players still in uniform could be seen hugging before they boarded a bus to leave the area. Roads surrounding the arena were shut down as a heavy police presence remained and helicopters flew overhead.
Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee said he is monitoring the shooting.
“I am praying for Pawtucket and everyone involved,” he said on social media platform X.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said agents are assisting local authorities.
Monday’s shooting comes nearly two months after Rhode Island was rocked by a separate gun violence tragedy at Brown University, where a gunman killed two students and wounded nine others. That shooter went on to also fatally shoot 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.
“The fortunate thing is that the two incidents are not related, but it is very tragic,” said Pawtucket Mayor Don Grebien. “These are high school kids. They were doing an event, they were playing with their families watching, a fun time, and it turned into this.”
Pawtucket is nestled just north of Providence and right under the Massachusetts state border. A city of just under 80,000, Pawtucket had up until recently been known as the home to Hasbro’s headquarters.
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