The shooter responsible for two deaths and three additional critical injuries at a youth hockey game in Rhode Island on Monday was a trans individual who targeted family members after a history of conflict over their gender identity. 

The father of three transitioned in 2020 and socially used the names Roberta Dorgan and Roberta Esposito, Pawtucket Police Chief Tina Goncalves said at a news conference on Tuesday.

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“There was no indication from the family or friends that any violence was underway, or that they were in fear of this specific individual,” Goncalves said. “We continue to look into what the motivation was. We’re not sure at this point what the trigger event was that happened yesterday.”

Dorgan, 56, opened fire at the Dennis M. Lynch Arena in Pawtucket during a high school hockey game, killing ex-wife Rhonda Dorgan and their adult son Aidan Dorgan. Rhonda Dorgan’s parents and a family friend were also shot and remain in critical condition.  

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Dorgan had three children with his ex-wife, including son Aidan, a daughter, and a second son who was playing in the game.

The shooter had been to their son’s hockey games in the past, and their presence in the arena Monday night was not “unusual”, according to Chief Goncalves. Authorities said Dorgan carried two guns in the arena: a Glock 10 mm and a SIG Sauer P226.

After at least three bystanders intervened to stop Dorgan, they reached for a second gun to take their own life.

The shooting followed a history of family disputes involving conflict over Dorgan’s gender identity, according to court records.

In early 2020, Dorgan told police that shortly after a gender-affirming surgery, their father-in-law threatened to have Dorgan “murdered by an Asian street gang if he did not move out of the residence,” court records reveal.

Dorgan quoted the father-in-law using a derogatory term for transgender individuals and said no such person was “going to stay in my house.” The father-in-law was charged with intimidation of witnesses and victims of crimes and obstruction of the judicial system, WPRI News reports. Prosecutors later dismissed those charges.

The same year, Dorgan accused his mother of assault and acting in a “violent, threatening or tumultuous manner,” police records reveal. She was charged with simple assault and battery and disorderly conduct, charges that were later dropped.   

Dorgan told police that the father-in-law “told me that if I did not drop the assault charges against my mother that further retaliation could be expected and that was another reason to have me killed.”

Around the same time, Rhonda Dorgan filed for divorce from her husband, originally citing “gender reassignment surgery, narcissistic + personality disorder traits.” Court documents show those grounds were crossed out and replaced with “irreconcilable differences which have caused the immediate breakdown of the marriage.” Their divorce was finalized in 2021.

Following the shooting, Dorgan’s daughter said her father suffered from “mental health issues” and was “very sick.”

Dorgan also reportedly had a history of supporting far-right political positions. Photos show they had a Nazi Totenkopf tattoo on their arm and lightning bolts that looked like “SS,” a reference to the Nazi secret police, the Providence Journal reports. They also had social media accounts that showed support for far-right conspiracy theories for years. Law enforcement has not commented on the ownership of the accounts, but has said that it will take “thousands of hours of work” to comb through the accounts.

As a youth, Dorgan had a brief hitch with the Marines but was separated from the service after three months. At the time of the shooting, Dorgan was employed at General Dynamics Bath Iron Works, a Navy-contracted shipbuilding facility in Bath, Maine.

A fellow employee told the Associated Press that Dorgan, who was often called Roberta at work and used the women’s restroom there, frequently spoke of their son’s hockey exploits. She also said Dorgan had a bad temper that sometimes led to screaming matches with colleagues.  

Another co-worker described Dorgan as split on transgender acceptance. Pride in their transition alternated with embarrassment, the employee said. That coworker, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of workplace reprisals, said they knew Dorgan owned guns but wasn’t sure how many.

News of this shooting comes about a week after the suspect in a separate shooting in Canada was identified as a trans woman by police.

The vast majority of mass shootings are committed by cisgender men, but a few high-profile shootings perpetrated by trans people have put a target on the community’s back. Data on mass shootings in the United States found that of the 5,748 that took place between Jan. 1, 2013 and Sept. 15, 2025, only five perpatrators, less than one tenth of one percent, were confirmed to be trans.

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