‘Such a calm demeanour’: Friend reveals shock as Rhode Island hockey shooter was so peaceful

A friend of the Rhode Island shooter who killed two family members and injured three more at a high school hockey game has now spoken out and revealed she’s in total shock, because Dorgan had “such a calm demeanour”.

56-year-old Robert Dorgan, who also went by Roberta Esposito after transitioning into a woman, opened fire at a youth ice hockey game at the Dennis M Lynch Arena in Pawtucket on Monday.

The two people who died are Dorgan’s ex-wife , Rhonda and son, Aidan. Dorgan also injured Rhonda’s mother, father and a family friend, who are all still critically injured in hospital.

Dorgan died at the scene from what appeared to be a “self-inflicted gunshot wound,” Pawtucket Police Chief Tina Goncalves said. The shooter’s daughter has claimed it was a “targeted” attack and the shooter had a family “vendetta”.

However, Dorgan’s friend Kimberly, who only knew the shooter by the name Roberta, told WCVB she’s “completely boggled” because her friend was so “calm” and always “spoke highly” of her children.

Credit: Facebook

“To see the events of this tragedy was just shocking because she had such a calm demeanour,” she said. “I cannot in any situation understand how she can go and take the life of her child, especially because she spoke so highly of them.

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“It breaks my heart, I’m disgusted, I’m mad, I’m disappointed. She always spoke highly of her kids and she said that her children were the reason that she breathed.”

Kimberly first met Dorgan at a biker meetup in Florida. The shooter moved to Florida alone after getting divorced and having gender-affirming surgery, but then moved to Maine to be closer to family.

“We had a conversation not long after she moved up there [to Maine], and it was repeated, where she said, you know, ‘I moved all the way up here, and I don’t see my kids as much as I want’,” the friend continued.

“Well, kids, a lot of teenagers don’t want to be around their parents anyway… if I’m being honest, it’s sometimes probably hard when you have the dad, that’s now a mom, and sometimes her wardrobe was sometimes more flamboyant than her personality.”

She said Roberta “expressed frustration” about not spending time with her kids, but to do this to her family is “just atrocious” and she “cannot forgive” what her friend has done.

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Featured image credit: Facebook and WCVB