Business owners thought they would never reopen after Maine’s deadliest shooting
LEWISTON, Maine– In the immediate aftermath of Maine’s deadliest mass shooting, the owners of the Lewiston bowling alley and bar where the gunman killed a total of 18 people were certain their doors were closed for good.
But as time went on, they came to the same conclusion: they had to reopen.
In interviews with The Associated Press, co-owner of Just-In-Time Recreation Samantha Juray and Schemengees Bar & Kathy Lebel, co-owner of Grille, spoke about their businesses, the Oct. 25 shooting and how their thinking changed after support began to build from their families, the Lewiston community and from across the country.
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Kathy Lebel enjoyed playing pool. But she couldn’t fit a full table in her house and spent way too much money at local pool halls.
One night in bed, her husband, David, mentioned that one of her places to stay, Schemengees, was for sale. Lebel immediately sat up and told them to buy it.
“He looks at me and says, ‘We’re not going to buy that,’” Lebel says. “I’m like, ‘Are you kidding me? I’m going to buy it. I don’t know what it will take, but I want that billiard room.’”
Lebel got her way. After buying it 25 years ago, she moved the business and expanded it into Schemengees Bar & Schedule.
She also ignored advice to change the name – a nickname from the previous owner – and was amused that people had difficulty pronouncing or spelling the name correctly.
After her husband was diagnosed with Parkinson’s twelve years ago, Lebel became increasingly responsible for the day-to-day management of the bar. She also had her own health crisis, surviving inflammatory breast cancer.
Lebel relied most on Joe Walker, whom she jokingly called her workman. Together they opened a second restaurant in Lewiston just as COVID-19 hit, but they managed to survive the recession.
“He is my biggest cheerleader,” Lebel said. “And he doesn’t give up.”
On October 25, Lebel took a rare evening off to celebrate her husband’s birthday. At the bar, Walker was sitting next to the cornhole board when gunman Robert Card entered.
Lebel’s phone lit up. She read up to “mass shootings.”
“I just stood up and said, ‘Joe is dead,’” Lebel says. “Because I always knew what Joe was like.”
According to witnesses, Walker tried to stop the shooter but was killed.
Hours later, Lebel posted a message on Facebook: “My heart is crushed.”
Lebel said to himself, “I’m done. I Stop. It’s over.” She didn’t even want to leave her house.
But eventually she read some of the messages that poured in. They included questions about her plans from Lewiston’s deaf community, four of whom were murdered at the bar while playing a cornhole tournament. She realized how much they wanted to go back. Some of her relatives begged her not to let it end like this.
“I finally decided that I have to open again,” says Lebel.
It will have to be in a new location to help erase the memory of that night, she said. She doesn’t know how long it will last.
But one thing is certain: she will keep the name.
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Justin and Samantha Juray are moving forward with their plans to reopen Just-In-Time Recreation, the first place where Card opened fire. They ripped up floors, repainted them and installed new chairs.
“We’re just trying to change it up a little bit so that when people come in, it’s not a complete memory of the past,” says Samantha Juray. ‘Or from the event.’
Juray says Justin was initially “firmly” against reopening.
“Within a week of that, we knew we had to reopen,” Juray said. “Because the community kept asking us, and we knew everyone needed it.”
They received support from the Bowling Proprietors’ Association of America, which waived annual fees, provided equipment upgrades and sent holiday gift cards to employees.
“We’re like Americana. In a lot of small towns, we are where everyone goes to hang out,” said Frank DeSocio, executive director of the association.
Other companies where mass shootings have occurred have subsequently taken different approaches. In Aurora, Colorado, a movie theater that killed 12 people in 2012 later reopened under a new name. The city of Orlando, Florida, agreed last year to purchase the Pulse nightclub property to create a memorial for the 49 people killed there in 2016.
The Jurays hope to reopen in March or April. They also plan to keep the name. When they bought the bowling alley almost three years ago, the owner was still days away from closing it. Hence Just-In-Time, which also matched Justin’s name.
“It was a place – or it is a place – where people come together and spend time with friends and family, or create friends and family,” says Samantha Juray. “It’s a safe place.”
Two of their employees were killed in the shooting. The other seventeen will all return, she says.
One of those is 69-year-old Tom Giberti, who worked at the bowling alley for 20 years and saved at least four children that night.
Giberti remembers that he had just grabbed a screwdriver and was working at the back of the bowling alley when he heard the shots, which he initially thought were bowling balls banging in the back of the lanes. He saw the panic on people’s faces and the flash of a gun barrel.
“I ran over to the kids and stood behind them,” Giberti said. “And I got them back through the door, and when I turned to go through the door, he shot me.”
One bullet remains lodged behind his left knee. A second blew through the side of his right leg, somehow missing bones and arteries. Giberti says he also suffered shrapnel wounds in both legs as bowling balls and machines exploded around him.
Despite undergoing surgery and then being treated for a subsequent infection, Giberti looked in good spirits as he walked around greeting friends at a concert in Lewiston this month, which was hosted by local musician Ken Goodman to raise money for the two companies.
How does Giberti actually run?
“It’s amazing. I can’t tell you why,” he says. “I’ve seen what it did to the machines. I’ve seen what it did to others. I don’t know. My legs should have been taken off right away.” be blown. Either.”
Giberti says it took him a few visits before he could bring himself to go back to the area where he was shot. Now he can’t wait for the reopening.
“I’m very excited about it,” says Giberti. “It will be huge for the community.”