Kamal Ghorui
“We go BESERK.” Those were the chilling words posted online days before a gunman opened fire at a youth hockey match in Rhode Island, killing two people, including his ex-wife.56-year-old Robert Dorgan, who also went by the name Roberta Esposito, shared a series of disturbing online messages before the shooting at the Dennis M Lynch Arena in Pawtucket on Monday.
In one post on X, under the name ‘Roberta Dorgano’, the account said: “Keep bashing us. But do not wonder why we Go BESERK.” It was a reply to an X user calling a trans woman a ‘man.’
Hours later, police say Dorgan walked into the arena shortly after 2pm during a high school hockey game and began shooting half an hour later at around 2.30pm. Pawtucket police chief Tina Goncalves said at least two people were killed before Dorgan died by suicide. Three others were left in critical condition in the hospital. Authorities believe the violence came from a “family dispute”.A source told Fox News that the gunman shot and killed his wife and opened fire on his children before turning the gun on himself. Rhonda Dorgan, his ex-wife, is believed to be among the dead along with a family friend.Video from inside the arena shows a man wearing a white beanie walking down the stands and shooting into the crowd. A member of the public tried to stop him. Chief Goncalves said this likely stopped more people from being hurt. Police reached the scene within a minute and a half of the first emergency call.In the days before the attack, an online profile belonging to Robert Dorgan shared a video showing a woman running on a treadmill while loading ammunition magazines into a handgun and aiming it.Just hours after the shooting, a woman claiming to be Dorgan’s daughter told WCVB: “He shot my family, and he’s dead now.” She added that he “has mental health issues”.Court records show there had been problems in the marriage for some time. In divorce papers filed in 2020, Rhonda first listed “gender reassignment surgery, narcissistic + personality disorder traits” as the reason for the split. Later, this was changed to “irreconcilable differences, which have caused the immediate breakdown of the marriage”. The divorce was finalised in June 2021.Other court papers show Dorgan had argued with family members about gender identity. In early 2020, he told police he had recently undergone gender reassignment surgery and said his father-in-law wanted him to leave the family home.
