New trans shooting in the United States during a youth hockey game

A school ice hockey championship ended in tragedy in United States. A transgender man opened fire in the stands during a youth game in the state of Rhode Island and left a toll of three dead, including the striker himself, and three injured.

The incident took place at Dennis M. Lynch Arena, located in the city of Pawtucket, where a game between high school teams was being played. According to the authorities, the striker was the father of a senior player at North Providence High School and the ex-partner of another one of the victims. The main hypothesis points to a "family dispute", so the possibility of an indiscriminate attack was initially ruled out.

Images that began circulating on social media show scenes of extreme tension inside the arena. In a low-quality video, viewers can see a hooded man walking through the aisles of the stands before he began shooting, which triggered panic among players, coaches, and relatives who were watching the game. In the midst of the chaos, several spectators tried to subdue the striker.

According to the police, the shooter was identified as Robert Dorgan, 56 years old, who used the name Roberta Esposito. After firing the shots at his daughter and his ex-wife, and injuring three other people whose identities were not officially released, he took his own life at the venue.

The arena's security cameras recorded part of the sequence and the material is already in the hands of the prosecutor's office, which is working to reconstruct how the striker managed to enter with a weapon at a school sporting event and to determine possible responsibilities regarding security.

Hours after the incident, court documents revealed that in 2020 Dorgan underwent gender reassignment surgery, a process that coincided with the beginning of family and legal conflicts. That same year, his then-wife filed for divorce and in the initial complaint she mentioned the surgery and traits of narcissistic personality disorder as causes of the conflict, although later the process was formalized under the category of "irreconcilable differences".

Dorgan tenía antecedentes de problemas de salud mental

The divorce was finalized in 2021, but the family disputes continued. The custody battle over the children and the disagreements within the close family circle marked the striker's life in recent years.

According to police sources, the man had a history of mental health problems, evidenced, for example, by his multiple complaints against his in-laws for, among other things, alleged death threats. "He had mental health problems. He had been very ill for a long time", one of the striker's children stated.

The investigation remains ongoing in a case that once again involves a trans person and that also reopens the debate on gun violence in public spaces, even in settings linked to youth sports.