A Rhode Island man who says he wrestled the weapon of a mass shooter at an ice rink has recalled the horrific attack.
Shots rang out at the Dennis M. Lynch Arena in Pawtucket, near Providence, Monday afternoon as high schoolers were on the ice playing a game of hockey.
Pawtucket Police Chief Tina Goncalves told reporters Tuesday that 56-year-old Robert Dorgan had fatally shot their ex-wife, Rhonda Dorgan, and adult son, Aidan Dorgan, as they were watching their son play hockey. Rhonda’s parents, Linda and Gerald Dorgan, and family friend Thomas Geruso were also critically injured, according to Goncalves.
Goncalves said several bystanders stepped in to stop the suspected shooter, who pulled out a second gun and died from a “self-inflicted” gunshot wound. The suspected shooter also went by the names Roberta Dorgan and Roberta Esposito, and they appeared to be “in female clothes”, Goncalves said.
Michael Black of Pawtucket says he was one of the bystanders who intervened. He recalled watching the game between two local co-op teams when he heard the gunfire.
“Next thing you know I heard two loud pops, and it sounded like balloons because of the echo or something,” Black told Boston outlet WHDH. “I kind of looked around somebody, and I saw the gun. When I saw the gun I didn’t even look at my wife, I just said run. Run! And her and her friend, a group of her friends just started running toward the exit.”
Black said he then lunged at the suspected shooter, adding, “I kind of tackled and hit into him also.”
The Pawtucket man told another Boston outlet, WCVB, “I just grabbed, went for the gun and I got my hand caught.”
Black explained to WHDH his hand got jammed in the “slide mechanism” of the weapon. He said the suspected shooter “looked like he was trying to pull the trigger but nothing was happening. And we wrestled the gun away.”
He said the “strong” suspected shooter “pushed me off, and as he got back up, three phenomenal people grabbed him and tried to put him in a chokehold. That allowed me to get up and as they pushed him he ended up falling between the rafters.”
Black told WCVB extra magazines of ammunition from the suspected shooter fell out when tackled. He said the suspected shooter took out a second gun from a pocket and turned it on themself.
The Independent has reached out to the Pawtucket Police Department and a representative for the City of Providence to confirm reports that Black was the one who intervened during the shooting.
The shooting happened during a game between two local co-op teams: Coventry-Johnston and St. Raphael-Providence Country Day-North Providence-North Smithfield. All of the schools said that their students are safe.
Police are yet to figure out the motive behind the shooting and are looking into “what the triggering event was that happened yesterday,” Goncalves said.
The police chief said, according to video of the incident, it does not appear that any confrontation between family members happened before the shooting.
“There was no indication from the family or friends that any violence was underway or that they were in fear of this specific individual,” the police chief noted.
A GoFundMe page was created on behalf of the surviving members of the Dorgan family, and it has raised more than $180,000 as of Tuesday night.
“The weight of this loss is something no one should ever have to bear,” the GoFundMe page read.
An attorney for the Dorgan family wrote in a statement shared by several news outlets, “We are reminded that behind every headline is a family experiencing profound pain and loss. We care greatly for all families impacted by this recent tragedy and our thoughts are with them.”
Source: independent.co.uk