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Dramatic video circulating online captures the terrifying moment a gunman opened fire inside a Rhode Island ice rink — and the split-second when stunned spectators fought back.

The grainy footage shows a man in a hat walking down the aisle of the Dennis M. Lynch Arena in Pawtucket on Monday afternoon before he suddenly begins firing into the crowd. Within seconds, panic erupts. Parents and students scramble for exits as shots echo through the stands.

Police later identified the shooter as 56-year-old Robert Dorgan, who also went by Roberta Esposito. Authorities say he fatally shot two family members and wounded three others before turning the gun on himself. Investigators have described the violence as a targeted “family dispute.”

In the chaos, several bystanders can be seen confronting the gunman as others duck for cover.

“A lot of people were falling to the ground and getting stepped on,” Izzy Sousa, an all-state softball pitcher at St. Raphael Academy who was in the stands, told the Providence Journal.

Sousa said she escaped with bruises.

“All I thought was that if I fell, I was going to die,” she said.

What began as a celebration quickly turned into horror. The game marked senior day for the high school players, including Dorgan’s son, who played for North Providence High School. A livestream meant to broadcast the matchup for relatives unable to attend also captured the first moments of gunfire.

Closer footage of the shooting in Pawtucket RI pic.twitter.com/OfzZbqjQZ3

— a man has no name (@theironcoin) February 16, 2026

“When the first three shots went off, we all thought it was balloons popping from senior night decorations,” Sousa said. “As the bangs kept going off, everyone quickly realized they were gunshots, so we all jumped up and basically started a stampede to get out.”

Sousa’s friend, Ella Taylor, told the outlet she fell to the ground for nearly a minute and was “trampled by everyone else trying to get out.” The two eventually fled to a nearby Walgreens before making it back to their car, where they called their mothers in tears.

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“Right now I feel like I’m numb, if that makes sense,” Sousa said. “I’ll randomly get memories of it happening in my head and get super emotional, but it just still feels surreal.”

On the ice, players dove for safety. Olin Lawrence, a sophomore goalie at Coventry High School, told CBS Boston he and teammates rushed into the locker room and barricaded the door.

“We were just trying to be safe. We were trying to see if everyone was all good and if everyone was safe. Just to get everyone on the door,” he said. “We pressed against the door and just tried to stay safe down in there. It was very scary. We were very nervous. It was a lot of shots.”

Authorities say Dorgan shot four family members, killing two, along with injuring a family friend before taking his own life.

RELATED: NEW: Hockey Game Shooter Identified As Transgender

Court records show Dorgan underwent gender reassignment surgery in 2020 and that his gender identity had been at the center of prior family court disputes. His ex-wife filed for divorce that year, initially citing “gender reassignment surgery, narcissistic + personality disorder traits,” before the grounds were later amended.

Police have not detailed how those past conflicts factored into Monday’s attack, but Chief Tina Goncalves said the shooting appeared to be deliberate and rooted in a domestic dispute.

The tragedy comes just weeks after another mass shooting in Providence, underscoring renewed concerns about public safety in the region.

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