The deranged transgender father who gunned down his ex-wife and considered one of their sons at a highschool hockey recreation didn’t seem within the “Senior Evening” picture hours earlier than the lethal taking pictures.
Robert Dorgan’s son, Colin, was one of many Blackstone Valley Colleges gamers honored on the ice throughout a pre-game picture op on the Dennis M. Lynch Area in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, on Feb. 16.
Photographer Chip DeLorenzo was available to seize the pre-game ceremony and by the way turned the final particular person to seize a photograph of Colin along with his mom, Rhonda, and brother, Aidan, 23, earlier than they had been killed throughout Dorgan’s rampage.
“The primary image was with the participant and his mom and brother,” DeLorenzo advised WPRI. “The second was simply the participant and the mom.”
The Blackstone Valley hockey group yearly celebrates their graduating seniors on the finish of the season earlier than a recreation when their coach declares them onto the ice, accompanied by their households, to take an image and be acknowledged for his or her athletic achievements all through their highschool profession,
Through the recreation, 56-year-old Robert Dorgan – who additionally glided by Roberta Esposito – pulled out a gun and shot Rhonda, his ex-wife and cousin, earlier than opening fireplace on the remainder of his household round 2:30 p.m.
DeLorenzo was capturing in-game photographs of the Blackstone Valley offense when the pictures rang out inside the world.
“I believed it was fireplace crackers going off at first,” he advised the outlet. “I paused, and I regarded over to the place the visiting group’s mother and father had been and everybody additionally appeared to freeze. Then rapidly I noticed the mother and father on the customer’s aspect duck down and I heard the screaming.”
The photographer couldn’t make out what was occurring within the stands earlier than he hid behind the boards he was stationed at as spectators fled from their seats and gamers rushed off the ice to security.
“I used to be on the bottom on all fours and I regarded behind me and there was an emergency exit there, so I rushed out,” he mentioned.
Rhonda was pronounced lifeless on the scene and Aidan was rushed to the hospital in important situation the place he died hours later.
The gunman’s ex-in-laws – Linda and Gerald Dorgan – together with household good friend Thomas Geruso, had been additionally critically wounded within the taking pictures and are nonetheless hospitalized, WPRI reported.
Observe The Publish’s newest protection on the Rhode Island highschool hockey taking pictures
After taking pictures his family, Dorgan turned the gun on himself.
The deranged Dorgan was a primary cousin as soon as eliminated to Rhonda, and the couple shared three kids, Aidan, Ava, 20, and 17-year-old Colin.
The couple divorced in 2021 due to Robert’s gender reassignment surgical procedure and “narcissistic + character dysfunction traits,” courtroom paperwork reveal.
Rhonda later modified the rationale for the divorce from the musclebound, Nazi-loving trans shipyard employee’s craziness to “irreconcilable variations.”
DeLorenzo says he has had bother sleeping for the reason that taking pictures, however is hoping he can share the photographs with the household when the time is true to allow them to look again and have some blissful reminiscences.
“That {photograph} may give them consolation, realizing it was their final second collectively,” DeLorenzo mentioned. “I can’t think about what that’s like … however trying by way of the lens, I don’t know them they usually don’t know me, however once I look by way of the lens I really feel a bit of little bit of intimacy.
“For me it hurts as a result of I do know it was their final ({photograph} collectively),” he added. “So after they’re prepared, I’m prepared.”
