The transgender gunman who opened fire during a high school hockey game in Rhode Island allegedly had a ‘vendetta’ against his family and was shunned by his six children before he transitioned, according to his daughter.
Robert Dorgan, who also went by ‘Roberta Esposito’, fired shots inside the Lynch Arena in Pawtucket on Monday afternoon, killing his son Aidan Dorgan, 23, and his ex-wife Rhonda, 52. Dorgan then turned the gun on himself.
Since the tragedy, details have emerged of the 56-year-old’s disturbing behavior leading up to the fatal shootings.
Although he was very vocal online about his gender identity, his daughter Amanda Wallace-Hubbard, who witnessed the shooting alongside her two sons, said that was not what sparked a rift in the family.
‘Gender identity was not remotely a factor in him being ostracized from the family, at least on the part of myself or my siblings, it really was just a symptom of something that had been going on that was much deeper his entire adult life,’ Wallace-Hubbard, who is Dorgan’s daughter from another marriage, told the New York Post.
The 36-year-old said her late father ‘struggled with demons’, but she decided she had to distance herself from him after she had children of her own.
She also said that her father had a ‘vendetta’ against his own family, something she believes is what drove him to pull the trigger that day.
Robert Dorgan, who also went by ‘Roberta Esposito’, opened fire inside the Lynch Arena in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, on Monday afternoon. He killed his son, ex-wife, and himself
His daughter, Amanda Wallace-Hubbard, has since opened up about her late father’s relationship with his family
‘I just want to make sure people understand this was one person’s vendetta against their family,’ Wallace-Hubbard told The Times.
After her father started shooting, the young mother said she immediately protected her sons.
She told the outlet how thankful she was that a bystander, later identified as Michael Black, had stepped in when he did.
Black swiftly leapt over seats to snatch Dorgan’s pistol – preventing him from firing any further shots – before tackling the gunman to the ground.
‘Until that Good Samaritan incapacitated him, I really feared that my sons were next. I can’t thank him enough … I’m certain my sons and I are alive because of him,’ Wallace-Hubbard stated.
Although her father tried to work with him, Dorgan never got the help he needed, his daughter said.
‘He never really saw the error in his ways. Yeah. I think without real substantial mental health help, I don’t think he ever would have come around to see that, but you have to admit that you have a problem before you can get help.
‘He was just not willing to do that,’ she added.
Join the debate
Do YOU feel enough is being done to address domestic conflict before it escalates?
Dorgan killed his ex-wife, Rhonda, and their son, Aidan (both middle), in the shooting
Footage showed the gunman speaking with his family just before he pulled out a gun and fired it.
Dorgan also shot three others, who remain in critical condition at a local hospital.
The motive behind the deadly shooting remains under investigation, but authorities have stated it was ‘targeted’ and stemmed from a ‘family dispute.’
Just days before the shooting, Dorgan appeared to post ominous warnings on social media, including a clip of a woman running on a treadmill while loading ammunition magazines into a handgun and aiming.
In another post on X, a profile for ‘Roberta Dorgano’, he threatened to go ‘BERSERK’ while defending transgender Congresswoman Sarah McBride.
After her younger brother and his mother died, Wallace-Hubbard launched a GoFundMe page to help her two surviving siblings, Ava and Colin Dorgan.
According to her, her siblings’ grandparents have been left ‘fighting for their lives’ in the hospital after the shooting.
‘The weight of this loss is something no one should ever have to bear, especially at such young ages,’ she wrote.
Wallace-Hubbard also took to Facebook after the fatal shooting, posting: ‘My heart is broken. My sons and I are alive because of god there is no other explanation.
‘Please hug your loved ones and tell them you love them every chance you get!’
Although he was very vocal online about his gender identity, Wallace-Hubbard said that was not what sparked a rift in the family
Michael Black stepped in to try to stop Dorgan as he fired shots into the crowd. He was left with a hand injury and a burn to his face from an ejected shell casing
Black, the Good Samaritan who stepped in to try and stop Dorgan, said the shooter shoved him and rolled him onto the bleachers, before several others choked Dorgan, who Black said wound up falling right below him.
‘So literally I’m looking down and he’s looking up and we were staring right at each other. And at that point in time, I wanted to come down and put my knee or something to put it on his body to try to hold them down.’
But that is when, Black said, Dorgan pulled out a second pistol ‘and put it [in] his mouth and shot himself.’
Black told WCVB he was left with a hand injury and a burn to his face from an ejected shell casing.
He was then brought to a local hospital, where he said a nurse asked him how he was doing as her eyes started welling up with tears – prompting him to start to tear up as well.
‘It was just a moment that helped,’ Black said. ‘I was human again.’
