Erica Siaulnksi, Staff Writer
On Monday, February 15th, an individual opened fire at a youth hockey game in Pawtucket Rhode Island, targeting and killing their ex-wife, Rhonda Dorgan and her adult son Aidan Dorgan, while injuring other family members in the process, later identified as the ex-wives parents, Linda and Gerald Dorgan and a family friend,Thomas Geruso. Everyone was in critical condition and quickly rushed to the emergency room. Bystanders rushed for safety and a handful attempted to stop the attacker.
Authorities said, The shooter died from a self-inflicted wound shortly after. Later they were identified as 56 year old Robert Dorgan, who was nicknamed Roberta Esposito and Roberta Dorango.
Amanda Wallace-Hubbard, Robert Dorgan’s child from a previous relationship, was in the stands with her children when the shooting took place in the hockey rink, fearing that she and her children would be next. She recognized a bystander who stopped the attacker, putting an end to the tragedy. “I just want to make sure people understand this was one person’s vendetta against their family,” she told WPRI-TV “We were targeted. This was very specific. It wasn’t random.”
Colin Dorgan, the 17 year old son of Robert and Rhonda Dorgan, was on the ice when the shooting started in the stands. The game quickly came to a halt and players could be seen rushing out of the arena as quickly as possible. The youth program offered live streams of the games which meant that the shooting was caught on video and was quickly contained by law enforcement.
According to bystanders there was no indication that the shooting would happen and some staff at the ice rink even spoke about how Dorgan had come to watch family members and friends play on the ice several times prior to the shooting and that there’d never been an issue before Monday. Investigators are continuing to review footage of the shooting and conduct interviews from bystanders to try to fully understand what happened at the game.
One of Robert’s co-workers went on to say that he was known for his short temper that often led to screaming matches between co-workers which created a hostile work environment.
Prior to the shooting Ronald and Rhonda Dorgan got divorced in February of 2020. According to Rhonda’s petition which was obtained by BBC News she said that the divorce was caused by “gender reassignment surgery, narcissistic + personality disorder traits” but then the words seem to have been crossed out and replaced with the phrase “irreconcilable differences.”
Pawtucket Police Chief Tina Goncalves determined that the shooting was a “family dispute.” According to court documents, Dorgan alleged that his father-in-law used discriminatory language about transgender individuals towards him and threatened him about moving out. While Dorgan’s father-in-law was charged at the time, records show that prosecutors later dismissed the case for unknown reasons. It’s believed that Robert Dorgan may have been motivated by that prior incident but it still remains unclear.
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