Three people, including a suspect, were fatally shot during a youth hockey game in Rhode Island on Monday, authorities said. Pawtucket Police Chief Tina Goncalves said three other victims were hospitalized in critical condition.
“It appears that this was a targeted event, that it may be a family dispute,” she said, according to the AP.
Goncalves did not provide details about the suspect or the ages of those killed, although she said both victims appeared to be adults.
She said investigators are trying to piece together what happened and talk to witnesses to the shooting at the Dennis M. Lynch Arena in Pawtucket, a few miles outside of Providence.
A video will appear
Investigators are also reviewing video taken from the hockey game.
Unverified footage circulating on social media shows players scrambling for cover and fans fleeing their seats after a crack is heard.
Tearful families and high school hockey players, still in uniform, could be seen outside the arena hugging each other before boarding a bus to leave the venue.
Roads around the arena were closed as a heavy police presence remained and helicopters flew overhead.
Brown University shooting
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. This gunman also fatally shot a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Authorities later found Claudio Neves Valente, 48, dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at a warehouse in New Hampshire.
“Thankfully, these two incidents are unrelated, but it’s very tragic,” said Pawtucket Mayor Don Grebien. “They’re high school kids, they were doing an event, they were playing with the fans watching, and that’s what happened.
Pawtucket is located north of Providence and just below the Massachusetts state line. A town of just under 80,000, Pawtucket was until recently known as the home of Hasbro’s headquarters.
(With input from agencies)