Son of Pawtucket Shooting Suspect Convicted of Setting Fire to Black Church

by EnteringPawtucket.com

NORTH PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Nearly two years before the deadly shooting at a high school hockey game in Pawtucket, the son of the suspect in that attack was convicted in a racially motivated arson at a predominantly Black church in North Providence.

Federal court records show that Kevin Colantonio, 37, pleaded guilty in February 2025 to setting multiple fires around the exterior of Shiloh Gospel Temple Ministries, a Pentecostal church with a largely Black congregation. Prosecutors said Colantonio used gasoline and a lighter to ignite several blazes on the morning of Feb. 11, 2024, outside the church on Charles Street.

North Providence police and fire crews responded shortly after midnight, extinguishing the fires before they could fully consume the building. The structure sustained property damage, and services were suspended while repairs were made.

Colantonio was sentenced on June 5, 2025, to 78 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, after admitting to charges that included malicious damage by fire and obstruction of free exercise of religious beliefs. The case was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Rhode Island.

Court filings revealed investigators seized notebooks from Colantonio’s home containing racist and violent rhetoric. Writings cited in the plea agreement included phrases such as “burn churches down to the ground” and “gun everyone down that isn’t white,” according to the Department of Justice press release.

Colantonio also admitted to assaulting two federal correctional officers while detained following his arrest by throwing bodily waste at them, an offense included in the sentencing.

At the time of his conviction, prosecutors said the fires were set because of the “actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin and/or ethnicity of the congregants,” a statutory factor in federal civil rights-related prosecutions.

The connection between Colantonio and his father, Robert Dorgan, came into focus after the Feb. 16, 2026, shooting at the Dennis M. Lynch Arena in Pawtucket, where Dorgan opened fire during a high school hockey game. Dorgan was identified as the gunman in that attack, which left his ex-wife and one of his sons dead and three others critically injured before he died by a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Law enforcement officials and local leaders have said they are continuing to investigate the broader circumstances surrounding the Pawtucket shooting. The earlier arson case has drawn renewed attention in light of the family connection.