Oh Wow! Police Say Shooting At Rhode Island Youth Hockey Game May Have Been “Family Dispute”
Written by 96motero on February 17, 2026
A shooting during a Rhode Island youth hockey game on Monday night left three people dead, including the shooter. Authorities revealed, per the Associated Press, that three more people were in the hospital in critical condition.
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More Details About Rhode Island Hockey Game Shooting
Pawtucket Police Chief Tina Goncalves told reporters that someone helped bring a swift end to the violent scene Monday afternoon by intervening and trying to subdue the shooter. Goncalves identified the shooter as Robert Dorgan, born in 1969. Dorgan, the chief said, also went by the name Roberta Esposito.
JUST IN: Police confirm the suspect in the Rhode Island hockey game shooting has been identified as Robert, also known as “Roberta.”
This tragic act highlights a deeper issue — untreated mental instability and access to violence.
Instead of politicizing identity, we should be… pic.twitter.com/WvbcQlGW9Y
— Manni (@ThadhaniManish_) February 17, 2026
The shooter was reportedly at an arena to watch a family member’s hockey game and died from an apparent self-inflicted gun wound, Goncalves said. She added that authorities are still investigating the incident.
“It appears that this was a targeted event, that it may be a family dispute,” she said.
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.
“My father was the shooter.”
Outside the Pawtucket Police Department a woman said the man who opened fire during a high school hockey game was her father and that he was “very sick.” MORE: https://t.co/VNvOTYtJWS #Pawtucket #hockey #shooting #RhodeIsland pic.twitter.com/KWqPg12J5Y— WCVB-TV Boston (@WCVB) February 16, 2026
What Evidence Are Police Looking Into?
Chief Goncalves said investigators were trying to piece together what happened and have spoken with scores of witnesses who were there inside Dennis M. Lynch Arena in Pawtucket. The venue is a few miles outside Providence, Rhode Island.
Investigators are also reviewing hockey game footage. Meanwhile, unverified footage circulating on social media shows players diving for cover and fans fleeing their seats after popping sounds are heard.
Outside the arena, footage and photos showed tearful families and high school hockey players still in uniform, hugging before they boarded a bus to leave the area.
Incident Follows Shooting At Brown University
Monday’s shooting came nearly two months after Rhode Island was rocked by a gun violence tragedy at Brown University. There, 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,” Pawtucket Mayor Don Grebien said. “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, until recently, been known as the home of Hasbro’s headquarters.
Associated Press writers Kimberlee Kruesi and Becky Bohrer contributed to this report via AP Newsroom.
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