Rhode Island trans shooter’s son jailed for burning Black church a year before dad’s hockey rampage

PAWTUCKET, RHODE ISLAND: Kevin Colantonio, the son of a Rhode Island mass shooter, was sentenced to federal prison for setting fire to a predominantly Black church in 2024. The arson, which authorities determined to be racially motivated, occurred a year before his father carried out a deadly attack at a high school hockey game.

Colantonio is serving a 78-month sentence and is being held at a Federal Medical Center in Texas, with a scheduled release in December 2029.

Kevin Colantonio’s arson attack on Shiloh Gospel Temple

Colantonio, a 37-year-old, was sentenced to 78 months in federal prison for setting five separate fires at Shiloh Gospel Temple Ministries, a predominantly Black church.

At the time of sentencing, prosecutors highlighted that Colantonio had left behind writings promoting violence against non-White individuals, and also referred to the church in derogatory terms. These extremist writings were also part of the prosecution’s argument that the attacks were driven by racial hatred, not just criminal intent.

Law enforcement discovered disturbing notebooks filled with hate-filled rhetoric entries.

In one of those writings, he mocked the church, indicating that both race and religious bias fueled his motivations.

Colantonio was one of six children of Robert Dorgan, whose own history of extremist views included racism and far-right affiliations. Federal investigators noted that both father and son had exhibited far-extremist beliefs, and that Dorgan’s social media had been filled with racial and antisemitic content.

Link to Robert Dorgan’s deadly Hockey game shooting

Approximately one year after his son’s arson conviction, Dorgan became the perpetrator of a mass shooting at a high school hockey game in Pawtucket. During the February 2025 incident, He also fatally shot his ex-wife and his son, Aidan.

Colantonio was the half-brother of Aidan. Authorities are still investigating the motive behind the deadly rampage, Pawtucket Police Chief Tina Goncalves said, “It appears that this was a targeted event, that it may be a family dispute.”

Dorgan, who had undergone gender-reassignment procedures in 2020, had a troubling public profile. He was known to have a history of transphobia, and reports also indicated that Dorgan may have influenced his son’s extremist beliefs.

The day before his rampage at the hockey rink, Dorgan posted an anti-Asian slur as he replied to a video praising Adolf Hitler. In other posts, he made repeated references to “White power” and “White pride world wide.”

The shooting came nearly two months after Rhode Island was shaken by a separate gun violence tragedy at Brown University, where a gunman fatally shot two students and injured nine others, before also fatally shooting a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor.