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The suspect in Monday’s deadly violence at a Rhode Island youth hockey game worked for Bath Iron Works.
Police identified the shooter as 56-year-old Robert Dorgan, who also went by the name Roberta Esposito, according to The Associated Press.
A spokesperson for Bath Iron Works, a subsidiary of General Dynamics, told News Center Maine that Esposito was an “active employee” for the company. In a statement, the shipyard referred all other questions to police.
Esposito allegedly opened fire Monday at Dennis M. Lynch Arena in Pawtucket, killing two people and wounding three others. Esposito then committed suicide. Both people killed were adults.
North Providence Mayor Charles Lombardi identified the dead as Esposito’s ex-wife and son and said that the wounded included the alleged shooter’s former mother- and father-in-law, according to Boston ABC affiliate WCVB.
Police credited a good Samaritan for intervening and bringing the bloodshed to an end, The Associated Press reported.
Although the investigation is ongoing, police have described the shooting as a “family dispute.”
Rhode Island-based 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.