3 dead, 3 critically injured in shooting at high school hockey game in Rhode Island

RHODE ISLAND - Gunfire erupted at an ice-skating rink in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, during a high school hockey game on Feb 16, leaving three people dead, including the shooter, authorities said.

The shooting, which happened around 2.30pm (3.30am, Singapore time) at the Dennis M. Lynch Arena, left three other people in serious condition.

A motive for the shooting was not known, though it appeared to arise from a family dispute, chief Tina Goncalves of the Pawtucket Police Department said at a news conference, calling it a “targeted event”.

The two people killed appeared to be adults, according to Goncalves.

The two teams set to compete on Feb 16, Blackstone Valley Schools and Coventry Public Schools, were made up of players from multiple area schools.

“It was a senior night, a time for them to celebrate and remember,” Ms Goncalves said. “And it’s very unfortunate that this happened today.”

Mr Donald R. Grebien, the Pawtucket mayor, said the chaotic scene inside the rink was a frightening ordeal.

“Of course, when you get the call, you think it’s the worst thing,” Mr Grebien said during the news conference. “These are high school kids. They were playing with their families watching, a fun time, and it turned into this. So it’s got to be traumatic.”

Law enforcement officials said that they would work with the schools to offer counselling services for the students who escaped the shooting.

“Obviously, you know, it’s going to all settle in probably later tonight or tomorrow for them,” Ms Goncalves said.

As one of the teams was trying to break out of its defensive zone with the puck, a burst of gunfire echoed inside the arena, a video stream of the game showed.

Players on the benches began ducking for cover behind the boards. On the ice, the referee blew his whistle to stop the game and skated off the ice.

Within seconds, the benches emptied, with the teams hopping over the boards and skating toward exits on the other side of the rink.

Both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms, Tobacco and Explosives said on social media that it was sending agents to the scene of the shooting. Police in Providence said they sent officers to the scene to provide help.

The neighborhood around the ice rink is blue collar Rhode Island, a neighborhood of squat residential homes built in the shadow of the Industrial Revolution.

A mural on the side of the arena where the shooting happened celebrates the growth of the American textile industry, which started in earnest in Pawtucket.

“At the dawn of a new century the most amazing improvements had still yet to be realized,” a quote above the rink’s high school hockey player entrance reads.

By sunset on Feb 16, police officers still ambled up and down the streets around the rink and helicopters circled overhead.

Mr Don Cowart, superintendent of the Coventry Public School District, said in a statement on Feb 16 that all students on the hockey team who were at the rink during the shooting were safe and had been accounted for.

“An officer from the Coventry Police Department is on scene and remains with the students,” Mr Cowart said. “We are grateful for the swift response of first responders and arena personnel.”

Representative Gabe Amo, who grew up in Pawtucket, urged people in a post on the social media platform X to avoid the area of the shooting.

“My thoughts are with the victims of the shooting in Pawtucket,” Mr Amo wrote. “Grateful to our law enforcement and first responders for acting swiftly.”

The Providence Bruins, the American Hockey League affiliate of the Boston Bruins, offered its support to the community and praised emergency responders on social media.

The shooting comes about two months after Rhode Island was rattled by a separate attack at Brown University that killed two students, wounded nine others, and set off a dayslong search.

Investigators said the assailant in that attack also killed an MIT professor before fatally shooting himself inside a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire. NYTIMES