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Police have seized guns and ammunition from the Maine home and storage unit of the suspect who opened fire at a Rhode Island youth hockey game.
The shooter — identified as 56-year-old Robert Dorgan, who, police said, also went by the name Roberta Esposito — allegedly opened fire Monday afternoon at Dennis M. Lynch Arena in Pawtucket, killing two people and wounding three others. Esposito then committed suicide.
Pawtucket is north of the Rhode Island capital Providence.
North Providence Mayor Charles Lombardi identified the dead as Esposito’s ex-wife and a son and said that the wounded included the alleged shooter’s former mother- and father-in-law, according to Boston ABC affiliate WCVB. The third person wounded in the shooting was a family friend.
Police credited good Samaritans for intervening and bringing the bloodshed to an end, The Associated Press reported.
Esposito worked at Bath Iron Works here in Maine, according to a spokesperson for the General Dynamics subsidiary.
The Maine State Police and FBI seized evidence from Esposito’s home in Bath and a storage unit in Brunswick. That included a sawed-off shotgun, an AR-15-style rifle, ammunition and gun accessories, according to Rhode Island-based WPRI.
Although the investigation is ongoing, police have described the shooting as a “family dispute.”
Earlier this week WPRI reported, citing court documents, that Esposito’s gender identity had been at the center of family disputes in recent years.
After getting gender-reassignment surgery, Esposito alleged to police in early 2020 that their father-in-law wanted to kick them out of the home where they had lived for seven years. Esposito’s father-in-law also allegedly threatened to have an “Asian street gang” kill Esposito, according to WPRI.
Esposito also alleged that their mother assaulted them, and she was charged with simple assault and battery and disorderly conduct in 2020. Esposito’s father-in-law allegedly pressured them to drop the assault case, and if they didn’t, it would be “another reason to have” Esposito killed, WPRI reported.
The father-in-law was charged with witness tampering and obstruction of justice, but those charges were later dropped.
Around that time, Esposito’s wife filed for divorce, citing their gender-reassignment surgery, but that was later amended to cite “irreconcilable differences,” according to court documents obtained by WPRI.
The couple had six children.
Esposito’s daughter Amanda told Portland-based CBS affiliate WGME that her father struggled with mental health but didn’t seek treatment. Esposito had been ostracized by the family because of their history of violence and abuse, she told the TV station.
She was at Monday’s game with her two sons. She told WGME that she and her sons may have been shot if it weren’t for the intervention of bystanders who attempted to subdue her father before Esposito took their own life.
