What began as “balloons popping” during a Rhode Island hockey game spiraled into chaos within minutes. Now, a bystander is revealing the second-by-second timeline, including the moment everything could have ended even worse.It sounded harmless at first. Just a couple of pops echoing across the ice.An eyewitness was sitting in the bleachers at Dennis M. Lynch Arena in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, just before 3 p.m. Monday, February 16, 2026, when the noise cut through the first period of a high school hockey game.The home team had just gone up 1–0. There were about 10 minutes left in the period.

“I heard two shots, and I said, ‘balloons popping,'” the witness, Michael Black, told WCVB 5 News. “I heard another popping and recognized it was not a balloon.”He looked up. That’s when he saw a pistol pointed toward people seated in the second row. His wife was beside him. “I told my wife to run,” he said.She moved. Michael didn’t.He was standing on the third step of the bleachers. The gunman was about one and a half levels below him. He jumped. “I just grabbed, went for the gun and I got my hand caught,” he said.His left hand became lodged in the chamber as the weapon discharged, jamming it and preventing it from firing again.For a moment, the fight was physical and close. “They’re trying to tackle him. And then he fell down, and he fell right towards me. So he was on his back,” Michael said, describing how other men, including someone named Bob, rushed in to help.Additional magazines loaded into the gun spilled out during the struggle. The first gun was now in Michael’s control. It should have been over.