The deranged transgender father who gunned down his ex-wife and one among their sons at a highschool hockey recreation didn’t seem within the “Senior Evening” picture hours earlier than the lethal capturing.
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 readily available to seize the pre-game ceremony and by the way grew to become the final particular person to seize a photograph of Colin together 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 informed WPRI. “The second was simply the participant and the mom.”
The Blackstone Valley hockey crew yearly celebrates their graduating seniors on the finish of the season earlier than a recreation when their coach pronounces 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 images of the Blackstone Valley offense when the photographs rang out inside the sector.
“I believed it was fireplace crackers going off at first,” he informed the outlet. “I paused, and I seemed over to the place the visiting crew’s mother and father had been and everybody additionally appeared to freeze. Then abruptly 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 taking place 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 seemed behind me and there was an emergency exit there, so I rushed out,” he mentioned.
Rhonda was pronounced useless on the scene and Aidan was rushed to the hospital in essential situation the place he died hours later.
The gunman’s ex-in-laws – Linda and Gerald Dorgan – together with household buddy Thomas Geruso, had been additionally critically wounded within the capturing and are nonetheless hospitalized, WPRI reported.
Comply with The Put up’s newest protection on the Rhode Island highschool hockey capturing
After capturing his family members, Dorgan turned the gun on himself.
The deranged Dorgan was a primary cousin as soon as eliminated to Rhonda, and the couple shared three youngsters, Aidan, Ava, 20, and 17-year-old Colin.
The couple divorced in 2021 due to Robert’s gender reassignment surgical procedure and “narcissistic + persona dysfunction traits,” courtroom paperwork reveal.
Rhonda later modified the explanation for the divorce from the musclebound, Nazi-loving trans shipyard employee’s craziness to “irreconcilable variations.”
DeLorenzo says he has had hassle sleeping because the capturing, however is hoping he can share the images with the household when the time is true to allow them to look again and have some completely satisfied recollections.
“That {photograph} may give them consolation, understanding it was their final second collectively,” DeLorenzo mentioned. “I can’t think about what that’s like … however wanting by way of the lens, I don’t know them and so they don’t know me, however after I look by way of the lens I really feel somewhat little bit of intimacy.
“For me it hurts as a result of I do know it was their final ({photograph} collectively),” he added. “So once they’re prepared, I’m prepared.”
