When Rhode Island shooter started firing, bystanders jumped into action to end the carnage

Three people are dead, including the suspect, following a shooting during a game at an indoor hockey rink in Rhode Island.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Sitting in the stands at a hockey game, Michael Black heard what he thought was popping balloons before quickly realizing it was gunfire. As dozens of people rushed out of the Rhode Island arena, Black told his wife to “run, run” and then lunged toward the shooter’s handgun.

Black managed to get his left hand caught in the chamber of Robert Dorgan’s gun, jamming it and then briefly attempted to hold Dorgan down. But Dorgan, a former bodybuilder, hoisted Black into the air before at least two other bystanders rushed over to subdue the shooter. One of them could be seen on video putting Dorgan into a choke hold.

Dorgan fell to the ground, with the 58-year-old Black on top of him. The shooter died from a self-inflicted gunshot after pulling out a second gun as the two locked eyes. Black never heard Dorgan say a word.

“The first thought was the safety of my wife. And the second thought was, because the bullets were coming out, was to focus in on the gun,” said Black, who ran a printing company until he retired in 2021 and has no specialized emergency response training. “Get the gun and then subdue the shooter.”

Pawtucket police have said the shooter behind the deadly ice rink tragedy on Monday was Robert Dorgan, who also went by Roberta Esposito and Roberta Dorgano.

Dorgan’s ex-wife Rhonda Dorgan and adult son Aidan Dorgan were killed in the shooting, and three others were injured: Rhonda Dorgan’s parents, Linda and Gerald Dorgan; and a family friend, Thomas Geruso, all of whom remained in critical condition Wednesday.

`Courageous citizens’ help stop tragedy

Along with Black, Robert Rattenni, and Ryan Cordeiro are being credited as subduing the suspect. Separately, Chris Librizzi and Glenn Narodowy, both retired Rhode Island firefighters and EMTs, and nurse Maryann Rattenni provided first aid in the immediate aftermath.

Pawtucket police say this group of “courageous citizens” who rushed to intervene in the attack “undoubtedly prevented further injury and increased the chances of survival for the injured.”

“I look at it as being fortunate, saddened tremendously in the loss, but fortunate that a small group of people could make a difference,” Black said in a Zoom interview Thursday from South Carolina where he was on a college visit with his son.

One of the more puzzling unsolved questions surrounding the ice rink shooting is over why Dorgan chose the Dennis M. Lynch arena. It was a familiar spot for Dorgan’s family, with Aidan Dorgan, 23, playing hockey and had once hoped to be recruited by a college hockey team. He’d shown up Monday to watch his little brother’s hockey match with his mom, grandparents and other family. Dorgan had also been known to frequent the arena to watch family matches.

On Monday, Amanda Wallace-Hubbard, Aidan Dorgan’s sister and stepdaughter to Rhonda Dorgan, was in the stands. She has since credited Black as the reason she’s still alive since she was likely next in line to have been shot.

Black also said a detective reached out to him Tuesday to say that one of Dorgan’s daughters wanted to thank him for his efforts.

Survivors grapple with hero title

Authorities have not directly said that Dorgan was transgender and have said questions around Dorgan’s gender identity are not relevant to their investigation surrounding the case.

However, court records from Dorgan’s past show that gender identity was at least one of the contributing factors to Dorgan’s wife filing for divorce in 2020 after nearly 30 years of marriage. Dorgan’s X account mentions being transgender and sharing far-right ideologies.

With Dorgan dead, other bystanders rushed to provide treatment for the five people who had been shot and were lying between the bleachers. Blood was everywhere. Police arrived within minutes, and Black with his injured hand was escorted outside in the parking lot where he reunited with his wife.

“My wife saw me and she ran underneath the yellow tape, kind of grabbed me from behind, and we gave a big hug,” Black said. “She said, `I heard you helped with the shooter. And she says, what’s all the blood? I said, ‘I got my hand caught in the gun.’ And then she said, `Honey, I don’t know whether I should be proud of you, but I’m pissed off at you for putting yourself in that situation.”'

As he was sitting in the hospital getting treatment on his injured hand, Black recalled a nurse calling him a hero -- a label that has repeatedly been applied to all three bystanders in recent days.

“I said I don’t feel like I’m a hero right now,” Black said. “I looked up and I was feeling for the family. So I started getting some tears in my eyes. And then she got tears in her eyes, too. It was just a moment of decompression at that point.”

Black said after the shooting he initially canceled plans to take his son on a college visit to South Carolina before reconsidering and going ahead with the trip.

“About an hour and a half later, as I was decompressing a little bit, I was on my couch, the TV, and I had my chocolate Lab next to me, and I started thinking that I’m not going to allow this shooter to change my life,” he said. “I’m not going to allow him to start, you know, dictating or making me afraid.”

Michael Casey and Kimberlee Kruesi, The Associated Press

Casey reported from Boston.