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The man who opened fire at a Rhode Island ice rink during a high school hockey game Monday night, killing two family members and injuring three others before turning the gun on himself, identified as transgender and had multiple family disputes regarding his gender identity.
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Robert Dorgan, 56, also went by the name Roberta, Pawtucket Police Chief Tina Goncalves confirmed in a news conference Monday night. Police described the shooting at Dennis M. Lynch Arena in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, as stemming from a family dispute.
Dorgan allegedly opened fire during a hockey game between Coventry and Blackstone Valley Schools.
Court documents show that his transgender identity played a key role in multiple family disputes, WPRI News reported.
In early 2020, Dorgan reported to the North Providence Police that he had undergone gender-reassignment surgery and that his father-in-law demanded he leave his home for that reason.
Dorgan’s then-wife, Rhonda Dorgan, filed for divorce at around the same time. Under grounds for divorce, she initially wrote, “gender reassignment surgery, narcissistic + personality disorder traits.”
Someone later crossed out those reasons and wrote “irreconcilable differences which have caused the immediate breakdown of the marriage.”
The court finalized the divorce in June 2021.
Dorgan told police that his father-in-law, who shares the same last name, threatened to “have him murdered by an Asian street gang if he did not move out of the residence,” the court documents state.
Dorgan told police that his father-in-law used a derogatory term for people who identify as transgender.
Other Trans Shooters
The shooting comes less than a week after an 18-year-old man who identified as a woman shot and killed six people at a school in British Columbia, Canada. Jesse Van Rootselaar first killed his mother, 39, and his 11-year-old stepbrother at their family home in the remote community of Tumbler Ridge, before targeting Tumbler Ridge Secondary School Tuesday.
While Van Rootselaar’s motive remains unclear, this shooting comes after a string of violence and threats from perpetrators who identified as transgender or supported transgenderism.
In September, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox confirmed reports that 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, who has been charged with Charlie Kirk’s murder, was living with a boyfriend who identifies as transgender. Robinson reportedly confessed to his boyfriend that he committed the murder.
1⃣Tyler Robinson
The man who allegedly shot and killed Charlie Kirk was dating a man who identifies as a woman, and he started to support “trans rights” in recent years, his mother told authorities.
This is the latest in a line of violence, however.
🧵2/15 pic.twitter.com/WQuuHKKxMd
— Tyler O’Neil (@Tyler2ONeil) September 20, 2025
Authorities reportedly confirmed that 23-year-old Robin Westman, a male born Robert Westman, opened fire at Annunciation Church in Minneapolis in August, killing two children and injuring 17 others.
Audrey Elizabeth Hale, 28, reportedly identified as male. She shot and killed three children and three adults on March 27, 2023, at The Covenant School, a Presbyterian school in Nashville, Tennessee. Police fatally shot her during the attack.
According to a court document obtained by The Daily Signal, the man who tried to assassinate Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in June 2022 identifies as a woman. Nicholas Roske, who was 29 when he pleaded guilty in April, identifies as Sophie Roske in a court document.
On May 7, 2019, then-16-year-old Maya “Alec” McKinney and her 19-year-old fellow student, Devon Erickson, opened fire at STEM School Highlands Ranch in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, killing one and injuring eight. Both have been sentenced to life in prison. McKinney, a female, identifies as male.
In June 2024, a judge sentenced Jason Lee Willie, a man who identifies as a woman and goes by Alexia, to one year in prison after he pleaded guilty to threatening to injure people across state lines. Willie, a resident of Nashville, Illinois, confessed to threatening to rape girls in girls’ restrooms, carry out mass shootings at schools, and bomb churches.
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This article was originally published at The Daily Signal. Photo Credit: inkdrop/Canva Teams.
