A high school co-op hockey game in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, descended into horror Monday night when a gunman in womens clothing opened fire in the stands, killing two family members and wounding three others before turning a weapon on himself.
According to The Blaze, police identified the shooter as 56-year-old Robert Dorgan, a trans-identifying man who called himself Roberta Esposito. Authorities say Dorgan fatally shot his son, Aidan Dorgan, and his ex-wife, Rhonda Dorgan, and critically injured Rhondas parents, Linda and Gerald Dorgan, along with family friend Thomas Geruso, in what appears to have been a targeted domestic attack carried out in a public venue.
The carnage might have been far worse, as Dorgan arrived armed with a Glock 29 10mm and a Sig Sauer P226, giving him the capacity to continue firing into a crowded arena. Instead, several spectators ordinary citizens who refused to stand by helplessly intervened at great personal risk and helped bring the rampage to an end.
Pawtucket Mayor Don Grebien and the Pawtucket Police Department publicly credited three men Michael Black, Robert Rattenni, and Ryan Cordeiro with playing decisive roles in stopping the shooter. On Tuesday, Grebien praised the remarkable bravery of the Good Samaritans who stepped in without hesitation, placing themselves in harm's way to stop that shooter, adding that their courage undoubtedly prevented further loss and injury.
Michael Black, a local resident known for his charitable work, told WJAR-TV that the first sounds of gunfire were so out of place he initially mistook them for a harmless distraction. As I was watching the game, I heard a pop, pop. And I thought they were balloons, he recalled.
Once he realized there were no balloons and that something was terribly wrong, Blacks instincts shifted from spectator to protector. My wife was sitting next to me with some friends, and we didnt even look at each other, said Black. I just said, 'Run! Run!'
Black then moved toward the danger, waiting for a brief opening to act. I kind of waited, and as soon as I saw a clear path, I got on the third-level step, and he was on the one and a half, and I just jumped across and went for the gun, said Black.
In the struggle that followed, Black was injured but managed to interfere with the shooters ability to fire. With bandages still visible on his hand, Black told WJAR that his hand became trapped in the sliding chamber, which for a critical moment kept the gun from discharging again.
I was holding him down with my body, and you could see him trying to move his [trigger] finger ... but my hand was in the gun, said Black, describing a desperate physical contest over control of the weapon. His actions, taken without any guarantee of survival, exemplified the kind of individual courage that often makes the difference in such attacks.
The assailant, however, was able to shove Black off and regain his footing, at least briefly. The transvestic shooter, as Black described him, was then quickly overwhelmed by three gentlemen, one of whom, Black said, choked him from behind.
One of those men, identified as Robert Rattenni, told WPRI-TV that he too engaged the gunman at close quarters. I pulled the person to me and tried to wrap my arms around him, but that didnt work, so then I was able to stand up and put him in a headlock, Rattenni said, recounting how he tried to restrain the attacker as chaos erupted around them.
Black later emphasized that the combined effort of multiple men was crucial to stopping the shooter before more lives were taken. Without their help, he stressed, it could have been a different ending for sure.
As the struggle continued, the shooter lost his balance while fighting off Rattenni and at least one other man, tumbling backward and landing between the bleachers. Black, who had managed to secure one of the firearms, then saw the prone attacker reach into his pocket and pull out a second gun.
As he took that gun out, you could see this he had a worrisome, concerned look on his face, said Black. It was fast, but he took it out of his pocket, and he just put the gun in his mouth and shot himself.
With the killer dead, the focus in the arena shifted from subduing the threat to tending the wounded and confronting the grim reality of what had just occurred. It was just chaos at that point, said Black, describing a scene of bloodshed, panic, and frantic attempts to save the victims.
Authorities have not yet detailed the precise role played by the third man, Ryan Cordeiro, though officials have grouped him with Black and Rattenni as a key Good Samaritan. What is clear is that, in the absence of immediate armed police intervention, it was unarmed citizens who physically confronted the shooter and limited the scale of the massacre.
Outside the Pawtucket Police Department, a visibly shaken woman who declined to give her name told WCVB-TV that the shooter was her father and that he had mental health issues. Her brief statement underscores a recurring pattern in such cases, where serious psychological problems go unaddressed until they erupt in violence.
Dorgan, who worked for General Dynamics Bath Iron Works, a major shipbuilding facility in Maine, reportedly had a reputation for a volatile temper. It remains unclear whether that temperament also contributed to his extremely short stint in the U.S. Marine Corps, which lasted only three months.
Major Jacoby Getty, a spokesman for the Marines, told the Associated Press that the shooters rapid discharge signaled that the character of his service was incongruent with Marine Corps expectations and standards. That assessment suggests that concerns about Dorgans behavior and fitness for service emerged almost immediately during his time in uniform.
Public records reportedly show that when Rhonda Dorgan filed for divorce in 2020, she initially cited gender reassignment surgery, narcissistic + personality disorder traits as grounds for ending the marriage. Those reasons were later replaced with the more generic claim of irreconcilable differences, which have caused the immediate breakdown of the marriage, a change that may reflect legal strategy or a desire to avoid publicly litigating deeply personal issues.
Online, an X account under the name Roberta Dorgano, which USA Today identified as belonging to the shooter, painted a disturbing ideological picture. The user not only claimed to be to The Right of Hitler but also reportedly posted images suggesting he bore a Nazi tattoo of the 3rd SS Panzer Division Totenkopf skull, the same symbol that recently forced Democrat U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner of Maine to have a similar tattoo removed.
As investigators piece together the shooters motives, the case raises uncomfortable questions about mental health, radicalization, and the cultural celebration of gender confusion, all intersecting in a single violent episode. Yet amid the tragedy, the actions of Black, Rattenni, Cordeiro, and others in the stands stand as a powerful reminder that in a free society, it is often courageous individuals not distant bureaucracies who step forward to protect the innocent when evil appears without warning.
Login