The city of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and the broader New England youth hockey community are currently engulfed in profound grief and disbelief following a catastrophic act of targeted violence. On Monday, February 16, 2026, the Dennis M. Lynch Arena transformed from a place of community celebration into a sprawling, bloody crime scene. What was supposed to be a joyous “Senior Night” for the North Providence High School hockey team ended in sheer terror, forever altering the lives of the Dorgan family and the hundreds of spectators trapped in the bleachers.
Before diving into the timeline of the massacre, it is crucial to clarify some of the details circulating online. Viral posts have suggested that the shooter executed a teenage son in front of screaming children and that mainstream outlets are burying the story. In reality, this tragedy is making national and international headlines. Furthermore, while the shooter’s 17-year-old son, Colin, was indeed on the ice competing in the game, the son who was tragically killed in the stands was 23-year-old Aidan Dorgan. The horror of a parent opening fire on their own family requires no exaggeration; the facts alone are a devastating testament to domestic violence, profound mental instability, and grievance-fueled rage.
The Nightmare at Lynch Arena
The atmosphere inside the Dennis M. Lynch Arena on Monday afternoon was electric. Families had gathered in the enclosed, echoing rink to celebrate their senior athletes, carrying balloons, homemade signs, and flowers. The stands were packed with parents, siblings, and students. Among the crowd was 52-year-old Rhonda Dorgan, sitting proudly alongside her 23-year-old son, Aidan, her parents (Linda and Gerald Dorgan), and a close family friend, Thomas Geruso. They were there to cheer on Rhonda’s youngest son, Colin.
At approximately 2:30 p.m., the unthinkable occurred. The shooter, identified by Pawtucket Police Chief Tina Goncalves as 56-year-old Robert Dorgan—who had undergone gender reassignment surgery in 2020 and also utilized the names Roberta Esposito and Roberta Dorgano—entered the arena. Authorities noted that Dorgan had attended numerous hockey games in the past without incident, making this sudden arrival entirely unexpected.
Armed with two legally purchased firearms, Dorgan bypassed the general crowd and specifically targeted the section of the bleachers where Rhonda and the family were seated. Witnesses, many of whom initially mistook the sharp cracks for popping balloons or hockey sticks slamming violently against the plexiglass, were suddenly thrust into a fight for survival. At least 14 consecutive gunshots echoed through the rink.
Surveillance footage and livestream recordings of the game captured the sheer panic. Teenage players on the ice dropped to their knees, crawling toward the boards before sprinting for the locker rooms, abandoning their equipment. In the stands, spectators dove under metal bleachers, screaming and scrambling for the exits as the shooter methodically fired into the family.
The Victims and the Heroes in the Bleachers
The human toll of this targeted, premeditated attack is staggering, leaving a family decimated and a community in shock.
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Rhonda Dorgan, 52: A devoted, fiercely loving mother who was simply trying to support her child on Senior Night. She suffered fatal gunshot wounds and died at the scene. Witnesses describe her attempting to shield her family from the barrage of bullets in her final moments.
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Aidan Dorgan, 23: An adult son attending the game to watch his younger brother play. He was critically injured in the stands and rushed by paramedics to Rhode Island Hospital, where he tragically succumbed to his catastrophic wounds.
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The Survivors: Rhonda’s parents, Linda and Gerald Dorgan, along with family friend Thomas Geruso, sustained severe ballistic injuries. They were transported to the Level 1 Trauma Center, where they remain in critical condition, fighting for their lives as trauma surgeons work around the clock.
In the midst of the unfathomable chaos, as parents threw their bodies over their children to protect them from the gunfire, extraordinary acts of heroism emerged. According to Chief Goncalves, an unnamed “Good Samaritan” and at least two other courageous bystanders refused to run. Instead, they actively engaged the shooter. These brave individuals rushed Dorgan in the stands, successfully placing the shooter in a headlock and wrestling one of the firearms away. Their immediate, selfless intervention undoubtedly prevented a much higher body count and allowed dozens of teenagers to escape out the back doors to a nearby Walgreens.
Tragically, Dorgan had come prepared for a sustained assault. Amidst the physical struggle with the bystanders, the shooter managed to draw a secondary, backup firearm. Realizing the attack had been thwarted, Dorgan turned the weapon inward and died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, bringing the active threat to a sudden, permanent end just as the first police cruisers arrived on the scene.
The Suspect: A Life of Contradictions and Instability
The immediate aftermath of a mass shooting always begs the question: What drove a person to execute their own flesh and blood? As investigators from the Pawtucket Police Department and the FBI dig into Robert Dorgan’s past, a chilling portrait of untreated mental illness, severe family dysfunction, and a double life has come into focus.
The viral claims that “red flags” were ignored for years hold a significant, terrifying amount of truth. Shortly after the shooting, Dorgan’s adult daughter spoke to reporters outside the Pawtucket police station, openly describing her father as having struggled with deep, pervasive “mental health issues.” She stated simply and painfully, “He shot my family, and he’s dead now. He was very sick.”
Dorgan’s professional life was equally chaotic. Employed as an electrician and cable puller at General Dynamics Bath Iron Works in Maine—a facility that contracts with the U.S. Navy—co-workers described Dorgan as an “odd bird” with a notoriously “short temper” that frequently resulted in screaming matches on the shipyard floor.
Colleagues noted that Dorgan presented a deeply confusing, fractured duality. One day, Dorgan would proudly discuss the transition, occasionally arriving at the heavy-industrial shipyard in miniskirts and high heels, shocking the crew. The next day, Dorgan would appear deeply embarrassed by the transition. Astonishingly, just days before the shooting, Dorgan showed co-workers photos of Rhonda and the children, referring to Rhonda affectionately as “my princess” and giving colleagues the absolute impression they were still happily married. This was a stark, delusional contrast to the reality of their bitter 2021 divorce and the brewing homicidal resentment that was about to boil over.
Military records also indicate a brief, troubled stint in the armed forces. Dorgan enlisted in the Marine Corps in April 1988 but was separated from the service less than three months later with the lowest possible military rank, hinting at long-standing behavioral or psychological issues.
The Motive: The Divorce and the Family Fracture
The familial friction at the heart of this massacre appeared to center heavily on Dorgan’s gender transition and the resulting fallout.
In 2020, after nearly 30 years of marriage, Rhonda Dorgan filed for divorce. Court records show that her initial filing explicitly cited “gender reassignment surgery, narcissistic + personality disorder traits” as the primary reasons for the dissolution of the marriage. These deeply personal and specific grounds were later amended to the standard legal phrasing of “irreconcilable differences” before the divorce was finalized in June 2021.
During this highly turbulent period, the family dynamic shattered entirely. Dorgan filed a police report with the North Providence Police Department in 2020, alleging that his father-in-law (who is now fighting for his life in the hospital) had used severe slurs against him and aggressively demanded he leave the family home following the transition surgery. This brewing, toxic resentment over family acceptance—combined with documented narcissistic traits and a refusal to accept the end of the marriage—appears to have been a festering psychological wound.
Instead of seeking psychiatric help, Dorgan allowed the grievance to harden into a lethal vendetta against the very people he once claimed to love.
The Digital Trail: A Terrifying Public Warning
Perhaps the most terrifying aspect of this entire case is the digital breadcrumb trail Dorgan left in the days and hours leading up to the massacre. The claim that the shooter “snapped” implies a sudden loss of control, but the online evidence points to a mind that was actively preparing for violence.
Operating an account on the social media platform X under the name “Roberta Dorgano,” the suspect exhibited highly erratic, aggressive, and politically extreme behavior. The account was a bizarre, contradictory cauldron of extremist ideologies. Investigators uncovered a timeline littered with antisemitic remarks, pro-Nazi rhetoric, deep-seated anger toward abortion, praise for white nationalist streamers, and staunch Second Amendment advocacy.
Most alarmingly, just 24 hours before walking into the Lynch Arena with two loaded handguns, Dorgan responded to a transphobic post from a prominent right-wing conspiracy theorist and an actor. Dorgan’s public reply was a direct, terrifying prophecy:
“keep bashing us. but do not wonder why we Go BERSERK.”
Furthermore, another online profile linked to Dorgan recently shared a highly disturbing video depicting a woman running on a treadmill while simultaneously loading ammunition magazines into a handgun and aiming it at the camera.
These posts were blaring, neon-red sirens of a mind deteriorating into catastrophic violence. They showcased a person actively associating political and personal grievances with the use of firearms. Yet, in the vast ocean of internet vitriol, these warnings slipped through the cracks of online moderation and community intervention, sitting in plain sight until it was too late.
The Aftermath: A Community Left in Shambles
Today, the city of Pawtucket, the state of Rhode Island, and the families involved are completely devastated. The Dennis M. Lynch Arena remains taped off by the FBI and local police, serving as a silent, chilling monument to a localized terror attack.
The immediate fallout has paralyzed the region. The Rhode Island Interscholastic League has indefinitely postponed upcoming games, acknowledging that the illusion of safety at high school sporting events has been shattered. School districts across the state, including Coventry and North Providence, have deployed crisis counselors, therapy dogs, and psychological trauma teams to help the terrified teenagers process the violence they witnessed.
Rhode Island Governor Dan McKee addressed the state, noting that this horror comes just months after another mass shooting incident at Brown University. “Our state is grieving again,” McKee stated. “As governor, a parent, and a former coach, my heart breaks for the victims, families, and everyone impacted by the devastating shooting at Lynch Arena.”
For 17-year-old Colin Dorgan, who was forced to watch his family be hunted from the ice, and his 20-year-old sister Ava, who is studying to be a nurse, the road ahead is unimaginably difficult. A GoFundMe page established by their stepsister, Amanda Wallace-Hubbard, notes the unbearable weight of the tragedy. However, she emphasized that despite the suffocating pain, the surviving siblings are determined to continue their education and build lives that honor the beautiful memories of the mother and brother who were so violently taken from them.
The Final Word
The slaughter at Lynch Arena was not a random act of madness; it was the final, explosive culmination of a documented history of narcissistic traits, a bitter family estrangement, severe mental illness, and a terrifying public declaration to “go berserk.”
It serves as a stark, horrifying reminder of the lethal intersection between unaddressed psychological crises, domestic grievances, and access to weaponry. While the internet endlessly debates the political and social implications of the shooter’s identity and the sensationalized aspects of the crime, the cold, hard reality remains unchanged: two innocent lives have been permanently extinguished, three individuals are clinging to life in a trauma ward, and a community has lost its innocence.
The true focus of this tragedy must remain on the victims—Rhonda and Aidan Dorgan—and the incredible bravery of the Good Samaritans who risked absolutely everything to stop the carnage. Their heroism in the face of pure, unrestrained evil is the only light in this remarkably dark story.
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