Transgender suspect in Rhode Island mass shooting threatened to ‘go BERSERK’ if people ‘keep bashing us’

Published February 17, 2026 9:53am ET



The suspected shooter who opened fire at a Rhode Island high school hockey arena on Monday evening is a 56-year-old man who identified as transgender and made a number of alarming posts on social media prior to the shooting.

The suspect, Robert Dorgan, also went by Roberta and used the last name Esposito. Dorgan posted on X the night before the shooting, “keep bashing us. but do not wonder why we Go BERSERK,” in response to an anti-transgender post referring to Rep. Sarah McBride (D-DE) by their birth name, “Tim McBride.”

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