A father opened fire in the stands of a packed high school hockey tournament Monday afternoon, killing his wife and one of his children and critically wounding three others before turning the gun on himself. The shooting erupted around 2:30 p.m. at Lynch Arena in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, where six schools had gathered for co-op games.
Robert Dorgan, 56, who also went by the name Roberta Esposito, shot his wife, three of his children, and a family friend. His wife died at the scene. One of the children died at the hospital. Three others remain in critical condition. Dorgan died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Pawtucket police described the massacre as a "targeted family dispute."
According to the New York Post, witnesses initially mistook the gunfire for something harmless. Some thought they heard balloons popping or players banging their skates against the boards. Then came the screaming.
A livestream of the tournament captured approximately eleven gunshots. Players scrambled off the ice. Fans fled for exits. According to local sports editor Branden Mello, one father in the crowd wrestled a gun out of Dorgan's hands, but the shooter "had a second weapon."
Olin Lawrence, a sophomore goalkeeper for Coventry High School, described barricading inside a locker room with his teammates:
"We were just trying to be safe. We were trying to see if everyone was all good and if everyone was safe. Just to get everyone on the door. We pressed against the door and just tried to stay safe down in there. It was very scary. We were very nervous. It was a lot of shots."
These are high school kids. They went to watch a hockey game and ended up pressed against a locker room door listening to gunfire. Melissa Dunn, a parent of a player competing in the tournament, fled the arena and then returned to find her son. She reported seeing people performing CPR on victims in the stands.
Outside the Pawtucket Police Department, a woman identified as Dorgan's daughter spoke to reporters. Her words were blunt and devastating.
"He shot my family, and he's dead now."
She described her father as "very sick" and plagued by "mental health issues." No official or medical source has corroborated that characterization, and the investigation remains in its early stages. The relationship between this daughter and the three children who were shot, whether she is a fourth child or one of the wounded, has not been clarified publicly.
What is clear is that Dorgan brought at least two weapons into a youth sporting event and targeted the people closest to him. That a bystander managed to disarm him of one gun and he simply produced another, speaks to the premeditated nature of the violence.
Pawtucket Mayor Donald Grebien said law enforcement is working with the Rhode Island Attorney General's Office "to ensure the facts are fully established." FBI Director Kash Patel announced on X that the FBI's Boston field office is assisting the investigation.
Grebien addressed his city Monday evening:
"Pawtucket is a strong and resilient community, but tonight we are a city in mourning. We will stand together to support all those affected in the difficult days ahead, and we will keep the public updated as confirmed facts become available."
St. Raphael Academy confirmed it had "been told none of our family was injured." Johnston Public Schools said, "to the best of our knowledge" no other Johnston students were harmed. North Providence High School, where Dorgan's son was reportedly a senior, has not issued a public statement.
Whenever a shooting like this occurs, the national conversation follows a predictable script. Gun control advocates will use the body count before the victims' names are even released. Mental health will be invoked as either a cause or a distraction, depending on who's talking. And the specific details that don't fit a preferred narrative will be quietly set aside.
The facts here point in a direction that deserves sober examination, not exploitation. This was a domestic massacre carried out in a public place. The shooter targeted specific family members. The "family dispute" framing from the police is not a euphemism; it is a description of motive. The horror is not diminished by the fact that it was targeted rather than random. A mother is dead. A child is dead. Three people are fighting for their lives.
The detail that Dorgan also went by the name Roberta Esposito will generate its own wave of commentary. It should be noted plainly and investigated thoroughly. The daughter's description of serious mental health struggles deserves to be taken seriously by investigators, not dismissed as inconvenient by activists who would prefer the public not connect any dots at all.
None of that changes the core reality. An arena full of teenagers watching hockey became a crime scene because a man with two guns decided to destroy his own family in front of hundreds of witnesses.
The unnamed father who charged a gunman and ripped a weapon from his hands deserves to be found and recognized. In a moment of chaos, he acted. That Dorgan had a second weapon does not diminish what that man did. It only deepens the horror of what everyone else endured.
Two people are dead. Three are in critical condition. A city is in mourning. And a locker room full of high school hockey players will carry Monday afternoon with them for the rest of their lives.