Kevin Colantonio, one of the six children of Robert Dorgan, the suspect in the mass shooting at a Rhode Island hockey game, was jailed last year in connection with a series of fires at a predominantly Black church, WPRI reports.

Colantonio, 37, is currently serving a 78-month sentence in a Texas federal prison after being convicted of lighting gasoline to spark five fires outside Shiloh Gospel Temple Ministries in North Providence in February 2024. The suspect sent text messages to his family labeling the church, which serves a mostly Black congregation of 100, as a place of worship for "Atheist God mockers."

Police also found notebooks filled with racist rhetoric at Colantonio's home, which included an entry that stated: “Gun everyone down that isn’t white, if one is white spread the gospel. Always give our bloodline a chance,” according to WPRI. Dorgan, who also went by Roberta Esposito, identified as transgender and had neo-nazi tattoos, was report to have influenced his son's obsession with race, having spewed his own antisemitic and racist views on social media prior to the murder-suicide incident earlier this week.

Grainy footage, which was captured during a livestream broadcast of the game, shows the shooter walking down the aisle at the Lynch Arena in Pawtucket before firing a gun, with many bystanders scrambling and some others attempting to fight back.

“A lot of people were falling to the ground and getting stepped on,” said Izzy Sousa, an all-state softball pitcher for the St. Raphael school, who was in the stands as a spectator when shots were fired, via the Providence Journal.

Dorgan is believed to have been targeting his own family during the ice rink shooting following years of heated court disputes over his identity, with his ex-wife filing for divorce in 2020 on the grounds of “gender reassignment surgery, narcissistic + personality disorder traits,” which was finalized in 2021, according to documents obtained by WPRI. The mother of Dorgan's son and the teenager's sibling were reported to be the two victims killed in the incident, multiple sources with knowledge of the situation confirmed to WPRI, though it wasn't immediately clear if the woman was Dorgan's ex-wife.

Two relatives and a family friend were also reported to be critically injured during the incdent. A woman who was seen leaving the Pawtucket Police station identified herself as the gunman's daughter and told reporters he had "mental health issues" and was "very sick."

“He shot my family and he’s dead now,” she added via the New York Post.

Police haven't released any details about the victims and are still investigating the exact motive.

“It appears that this was a targeted event, that it may be a family dispute,” Pawtucket Police Chief Tina Goncalves said via the New York Post.

The incident was reported at Lynch Arena, the home ice for the Johnson and Wales Wildcats hockey team. Teams from Coventry, Johnston, North Providence, and North Smithfield high schools were participating in games with St. Raphael Academy and Providence Country Day School when shots were fired at the facility.

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