CNN
By Elise Hammond, Mark Morales, CNN
(CNN) — Two people are dead and three others injured after a targeted shooting at a hockey arena in Rhode Island that may have been related to a family dispute, police said.
The gunman appears to have been targeting members of his own family, two law enforcement officials who have been briefed on the situation tell CNN.
The gunman died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after firing shots, the law enforcement officials added. The person killed was a young girl, WJAR reported.
Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are responding in order to assist local law enforcement, an agency spokesperson tells CNN.
Rhode Island State Police are also working with local agencies, according to Gov. Dan McKee. Providence Police also have officers assisting, it said in a post on X.
Two teams made up of students from multiple schools were playing in hockey games at the arena, according to WJAR. North Providence, one of the schools involved with a co-op team, told CNN that “preliminary information indicates the incident may have involved parent(s) of NP student(s).”
Meanwhile, Coventry, another school, said all of its students have been accounted for.
“An officer from the Coventry Police Department is on scene and remains with our students. Staff are also with the team, and we are continuing to monitor the situation while reunification plans are coordinated,” the superintendent, Don Cowart, said in a letter to parents, obtained by CNN.
Saint Raphael Academy, which also had students on the team, said, “There was a horrific incident with an active shooter. We have been told none of our SRA family was injured,” according to WJAR.
All North Providence students are safe, the school’s superintendent said in a statement to WJAR.
“I am praying for Pawtucket and everyone involved,” McKee said on X.
The latest spasm of gun violence comes just two months after a shooting at Brown University a few miles south left Rhode Island shaken and underscored the vulnerability of trusted community spaces.
The arena is about 5 miles north of Brown University’s Barus and Holley engineering building in Providence, where a 48-year-old man opened fire in December, killing two students and wounding nine other people.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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