PAWTUCKET, R.I. — A shooting inside a Rhode Island hockey rink Monday left at least three people dead, including the shooter, three others injured and the two high school teams playing fleeing off the ice as it all unfolded.
Pawtucket Police Chief Tina Goncalves did not provide details about the suspect or the ages of those who were killed, though she said it appeared that both victims were adults. She told reporters that the three injured are hospitalized in critical condition.
“It appears that this was a targeted event, that it may be a family dispute,” Goncalves said.
The shooting took place in the stands at Dennis M. Lynch Arena in Pawtucket, a few miles outside Providence.
The game between the two high school teams was livestreamed. Several gunshots could be heard on video that later appeared on social media, as players and coaches raced off the ice on the opposite end of the rink. Other video showed some players taking cover in nearby stores.
“I was on the ice, and I thought it was balloons at first,” Olin Lawrence, one of the goalie on the teams, told WJAR, the NBC affiliate in Rhode Island. “It was pop, pop, pop. And I thought it was balloons. But it just kept going and it was actually gunshots. And after the gunshots, me and my teammates ran right to the locker room, and we just bunkered up. We pressed against the door and just tried to stay safe down in there.
“It was very scary. We were very nervous.”
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.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
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