From NBC10 WJAR: One of the “good Samaritans” credited with intervening with the shooter at the Lynch Arena during the deadly shooting spoke about confrontation with NBC 10 on Tuesday.
Michael Black, who was at the senior night hockey game on Monday, said there was around 10 minutes left in the first period when he heard a popping noise.
“As I was watching the game, I heard a pop, pop. And I thought they were balloons, I thought they were big balloons. And the noise was right in front of me. I looked, and I saw, and heard another pop, and recognized there wasn’t any balloons there, and thought that there was something wrong,” he said.
Black said he was looking around, and saw a pistol being directed at the people in the second row.
“At that point of time, as soon as I saw the pistol, my wife was sitting next to me with some friends, and we didn’t even look at each other, and I just said run, run,” Black said. “I kind of waited and as soon as I saw a clear path, I got on the third level step and he was on the one and a half, and I just jumped across and went for the gun. I wanted to grab the gun. And what had happened was, my hand got caught in the sliding chamber and he shot, and my hand got caught and I was holding him down with my body.”
The gunman, Robert Dorgan, 56, was a biological male who identified as female and had started going by the name Roberta Esposito. Dorgan killed his ex-wife, Rhonda Dorgan, 22, and one of their sons, Aidan Dorgan, 23.
He also shot Rhonda Dorgan’s parents, Linda Dorgan and Gerald Dorgan, and Thomas Giarrusso, a family friend, who are reportedly all hospitalized in critical condition.
After Black wrestled the gun away from Dorgan, others stepped in to help, and Dorgan fell down on his back between the bleachers. For a moment, they stared at each other, then Dorgan suddenly reached into his pocket, pulled out another gun, put it in his own mouth and pulled the trigger, ending his own life.
Amanda Wallace-Hubbard, Dorgan’s older daughter from a prior relationship, said she and her two sons were also at the game sitting with the rest of the family.
“Until that good Samaritan incapacitated him, I really feared that my sons were next,” Wallace-Hubbard told reporters.
Black said when a police officer told him what Wallace-Hubbard had said, he felt even more convicted that he did the right thing.
WATCH Black’s full story below:
READ MORE from NBC10 WJAR.
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