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By KIMBERLEE KRUESI
A shooter unleashed a flurry of bullets during a Rhode Island youth hockey game, killing two people and injuring three others, in an attack that was cut short when a spectator stepped in to help stop the tragedy, authorities said.
Investigators had spoken to nearly 100 witnesses as of Monday evening as they attempt to piece together what happened early Monday afternoon inside the Dennis M. Lynch Arena in Pawtucket, a few miles outside Providence.
Pawtucket Police Chief Tina Goncalves said Monday that the shooter died from an apparent self-inflicted gun wound, though authorities are still investigating.
Goncalves credited an unnamed “good Samaritan” who intervened, bringing the attack “to a swift end.” She did not provide details.
It is not entirely clear what precipitated the shooting, who was targeted or why. Unverified video circulating on social media shows players on the ice as popping sounds are heard. Chaos quickly unfolds as players on benches dive for cover, those on the ice frantically skate toward exits and fans flee their seats.
“It appears that this was a targeted event, that it may be a family dispute,” she said. Authorities said both people who died were adults but have not released the identities of the victims.
Goncalves identified the shooter as Robert Dorgan, who she said also went by the name Roberta Esposito, who was born in 1969.
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High school hockey players and parents speak to a police officer near the Lynch Arena in Pawtucket, R.I., after a shooting at the ice rink, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Stockwell)
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High school hockey players and parents speak to a police officer near the Lynch Arena in Pawtucket, R.I., after a shooting at the ice rink, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Stockwell)
Monday’s shooting came nearly two months after Rhode Island 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.”
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Associated Press
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