A shooting at an ice rink in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, left three people dead, including the suspect, and three others critically injured during a youth hockey game
At least three people, including the suspected gunman, were killed, and three others sustained severe injuries in a shooting at an ice rink in the US state of Rhode Island on Monday, authorities said.
The incident occurred at the Dennis M Lynch Arena in Pawtucket, a few miles outside Providence, during a youth ice hockey match.
Police say incident appears targeted
Pawtucket Police Chief Tina Goncalves said three victims remain in the hospital in critical condition.
“It appears that this was a targeted event, that it may be a family dispute,” she told reporters. Goncalves did not release details about the suspect or confirm the ages of those killed, though she indicated that both victims appeared to be adults.
The shooting unfolded around 2:30 pm local time as teams from the Coventry-Johnston co-op and the St. Raphael-Providence Country Day-North Providence-North Smithfield co-op were playing, according to local outlet WJAR.
Witnesses reported panic inside the arena as gunfire erupted from the stands. The Pawtucket Times said shots were fired from behind one of the team benches.
Rhode Island Governor Dan McKee confirmed the shooting at the Dennis Lynch Arena and said state police were assisting local authorities. “I am praying for Pawtucket and everyone involved,” he wrote in a post on X.
East Providence Mayor Bob DaSilva earlier said on Facebook that his thoughts were with Pawtucket, “where one girl has been confirmed killed and four others injured”. His statement was issued before the death toll rose to three.
Pawtucket, located just north of Providence near the Massachusetts state border, has a population of just under 80,000. The town had until recently been known as the headquarters of Hasbro, and vehicles in the area commonly feature Mr Potato Head licence plates.
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 injured 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.
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