Authorities name Robert Card in connection with shootings at two locations and warn residents he is ‘armed and dangerous’
Authorities in Maine were searching for a “person of interest” after mass shootings in two locations on Wednesday night killed at least 16 people and injured dozens.
An armed police officer guards the ambulance entrance to the Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston, after a mass shooting.
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Police named 40-year-old Robert Card, an army reservist and firearms instructor, in connection with the killings at a bowling alley and restaurant in Lewiston, warning residents he was considered “armed and dangerous”.
Card’s car was discovered shortly before midnight in Lisbon, about eight miles from the murder scenes. Officials urged residents in both towns and surrounding areas to shelter in place as a manhunt involving hundreds of law enforcement personnel got underway.
Victims of the shootings, which took place at about 7pm on Wednesday, were taken to local hospitals. The early death toll of 16, from what the Gun Violence Archive said was the 565th mass shooting in the US this year, was expected to rise, authorities said. The archive defines a mass shooting as one in which at least four victims are wounded or killed, excluding the shooter.
Late on Wednesday, Mike Sauschuck, Maine commissioner of public safety, said Card had mental health issues and was released this summer after a short stay at a treatment facility. Sauschuck said the person of interest, from Bowdoin, about 15 miles east of Lewiston, reported hearing “voices in his head”, and had made threats to carry out a shooting at a national guard base in Saco.
A clearer picture of Card’s background began to emerge on Thursday. An account on X, formerly Twitter, was suspended by the social media giant, but not before screenshots began to circulate of likes and retweets praising far-right figures.
In Washington, Joe Biden ordered flags at federal public buildings in the US and overseas to half-staff until sunset on Monday, to commemorate victims of the “senseless act of violence”. The administration was offering “full federal support in the wake of this horrific attack”, a White House statement said.
Sauschuck said he was unable to give an accurate figure of the number of dead and wounded but an update was expected at a news conference scheduled for mid-morning on Thursday. The Androscoggin county sheriff, Eric Samson, and a Lewiston city council member told the Portland Press Herald there were at least 22 fatalities.
The police chief of Lisbon, Ryan McGee, said officers were “working with state and federal partners” in the search for Card while patrolling to keep the community safe.
“It’s a very tragic incident that happened and we’re doing our job to the best of our abilities to locate this suspect. We’re going non-stop until we locate them,” he told CNN. “If the community sees anything, stay inside, don’t approach, call the police department.”
Agents from federal agencies including the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) arrived in Maine overnight.
The shootings took place at Just-in-Time Recreation, a bowling alley, and at Schemengees Bar and Grille Restaurant in Lewiston, about four miles away. Locals said a number of parents and children were at the bowling alley, still known locally by its former name of Sparetime, as part of a children’s bowling league.
The Androscoggin county sheriff posted to its Facebook page two photographs of the suspect walking into the bowling alley with a long weapon raised to his shoulder. One witness, who identified himself only as Brandon, said he thought the shots were balloons popping, before he realised what was happening and scrambled to safety.
Zoey Levesque, 10, who was at the bowling alley with her mother, told the TV station WMTW she was grazed by a bullet.
“It’s scary,” she said. “I had never thought I’d grow up and get a bullet in my leg. And it’s just like, why? Why do people do this?”
In a statement on Facebook, the owners of Just-in-Time said they were “devastated”.
“We lost some amazing and whole-hearted people from our bowling family and community last night,” the statement said. “There are no words to fix this or make it better. We praying for everyone who has been affected by this horrific tragedy. We love you all and hold you close in our hearts.”
Kathy Lebel, a co-owner of Schemengees who was not present when gunfire erupted, said she was told a person walked into the restaurant and “started shooting”. Staff ran out, she said.
“It was just a fun night playing cornhole … it’s the last thing you’re expecting, right?” Lebel told the Sun Journal newspaper. “I still feel like this whole thing is a nightmare.”
Cellphone video showed patrons running or being led to safety by police. Schools, colleges and businesses remained closed on Thursday, amid the search for the killer.
Janet Mills, the Democratic governor of Maine, said she had spoken with Biden. The state’s US senators, Susan Collins, a Republican, and Angus King, an independent, both expressed condolences.
Maine has some of the loosest gun laws in the US. Permits are not required to carry firearms and it has no red flag laws to alert authorities of potential problems with gun purchasers. The state has a strong tradition of hunting and sports shooting. In 2022, there were 29 homicides throughout Maine.
A database maintained by the Associated Press and Northeastern University, more narrowly focused than the Gun Violence Archive, said the Lewiston shooting was the 36th mass killing in the US this year, with at 188 people losing their lives in incidents in which at least four people were killed.
Source: The Guardian
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