3 killed, including suspect, in shooting during Rhode Island youth hockey game

Three people, including the suspect, were fatally shot during a Rhode Island youth hockey game Monday, authorities said.

Pawtucket police Chief Tina Goncalves told reporters that three other victims remain in hospital in critical condition. The shooter died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, she said.

“It appears that this was a targeted event, that it may be a family dispute,” she said.

Goncalves did not provide details about the suspect or the ages of those who were killed, although she said it appeared that both victims were adults.

Authorities were still trying to piece together what happened and speak with witnesses, Goncalves said. They also were reviewing video taken from the hockey game. Unverified footage circulating on social media shows players diving for cover and fans fleeing their seats after popping sounds are heard.

The shooting happened at the Dennis M. Lynch Arena in Pawtucket, just outside of Providence.

Outside the arena, tearful families and high school hockey players still in uniform could be seen hugging before they boarded a bus to leave the area. Roads surrounding the arena were shut down as a heavy police presence remained and helicopters flew overhead.

Monday’s shooting comes nearly two months after Rhode Island was rocked by a separate gun violence tragedy at Brown University, where a gunman killed two students and wounded nine others. That shooter went on to also fatally shoot a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor. Authorities later found Claudio Neves Valente, 48, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at a New Hampshire storage facility.

“The fortunate thing is that the two incidents are not related, but it is very tragic,” said Pawtucket Mayor Don Grebien.

“These are high school kids. They were doing an event, they were playing with their families watching, a fun time, and it turned into this.”

Pawtucket is nestled eight kilometres north of Providence and near the Massachusetts border. A town of slightly less than 80,000, Pawtucket was, until recently, home to Hasbro’s headquarters.