PAWTUCKET, RI — The mother and son who were killed when the family’s father opened fire at a Rhode Island youth hockey game on Monday have been identified as officials released new information on Tuesday.
Rhonda Dorgan and her son, Aidan Dorgan, were at Dennis M. Lynch Arena to celebrate their son and brother’s Senior Night Game when Robert shot them and three others in the stands, Pawtucket Police Chief Tina Goncalves said Tuesday.
Rhonda succumbed to her injuries inside the arena while Aidan died after being rushed to a local hospital, according to Chief Goncalves.
Linda and Gerald Dorgan, Rhonda’s parents and Aidan’s grandparents, were also shot and remain in the hospital in critical condition.
A family friend was also shot and injured and is still receiving care in the hospital.
Immediately after the shooting, at least three individuals attempted to subdue Robert. However, Robert turned a second gun on himself and died from a self‑inflicted wound.
Goncalves said video from inside the rink shows Robert did not have an altercation with his family before the shooting and also explained that Robert was a frequent visitor at hockey games in the Rhode Island area.
Video cameras from inside the arena show Robert left the game at some point and returned, but it was not known at what point he first had the guns on his person.
The guns Robert used were purchased legally, Goncalves detailed. Robert had a license to carry in Florida and officials are investigating whether he had a license to carry in Rhode Island as well.
Court documents obtained by Boston 25 News on Tuesday revealed that Robert Dorgan, who also went by Roberta Esposito and Roberta Dorgan, had a long history of family disputes due to his gender identity, court documents show.
The documents show that in 2020 Robert Dorgan went to the North Providence Police and alleged that his father-in-law, Gerald, came into his home and threatened “to have an Asian street gang murder him” after he had recently undergone gender reassignment surgery.
Dorgan had pending assault charges against his mother at the time, Joann, whom he was accusing of assaulting him in a “violent, threatening, or tumultuous manner.”
Dorgan also accused his father-in-law of stating that he was going to retaliate if he didn’t have the assault charges against his mother dropped. His father-in-law was charged with intimidation of a witness and obstruction of the judicial system.
Around the same time, Dorgan’s ex-wife Rhonda, filed for divorce in early February, citing the grounds was due to “gender reassignment surgery and narcissistic and personality disorder traits.”
Dorgan’s ex-wife crossed out the grounds for the divorce, later writing in “irreconcilable differences which have caused the irremediable breakdown of the marriage.”
Paperwork from the divorce, which was finalized in 2021, shows that Dorgan had worked as a truck driver but was living in Jacksonville, Florida.
Investigators have not recovered a suicide note.
A GoFundMe has been set up for the victims of the shooting.
Monday’s shooting came nearly two months after Rhode Island was rocked by a shooting at Brown University that left two students dead and wounded nine others, as well as 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.
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