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 assist stop the tragedy, authorities said.
Investigators had spoken to almost 100 witnesses as of Monday evening as they try and piece together what happened earlier that afternoon contained in the Dennis M. Lynch Arena in Pawtucket, a number of miles outside Windfall.
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 didn’t provide details.
It shouldn’t be entirely clear what precipitated the shooting, who was targeted or why.
The sport was livestreamed by LiveBarn, a streaming platform for youth sporting events, whose videos have been shared on social media showing players on the ice as popping sounds are heard. Chaos quickly unfolds as players on benches dive for canopy, those on the ice frantically skate toward exits and fans flee their seats.
LiveBarn’s social media account has been issuing warnings to those that shared the video that they don’t have permission to achieve this. An email to LiveBarn in search of comment was sent Tuesday.
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“It seems that this was a targeted event, that it might be a family dispute,” Goncalves said. Authorities said each individuals who died were adults but haven’t 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.
Dorgan was an energetic worker at General Dynamics Bath Iron Works, a ship constructing in Bath, Maine, that contracts with the U.S. Navy, David Hench, a spokesperson for the shipyard, said Tuesday. Hench didn’t immediately reply to questions on Dorgan’s job title or how long Dorgan worked on the shipyard.
Monday’s shooting got here nearly two months after Rhode Island was rocked by a shooting at Brown University that left two students dead and wounded nine others, in addition to a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor. Authorities later found Claudio Neves Valente, 48, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at a Recent Hampshire storage facility.
“Our state is grieving again,” Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee said in an announcement. “As governor, a parent, and a former coach, my heart breaks for the victims, families, students, and everybody impacted by the devastating shooting at Lynch Arena in Pawtucket.”
Associated Press author Patrick Whittle contributed to this report from Portland, Maine.
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