Maine gunman Robert Card has been charged with eight counts of murder, while Gov. Janet Mills said 18 people were killed and 13 injured in the shooting at a children’s bowling alley and a nearby bar in Lewiston.
Colonel William Ross of the Maine State Police said only eight of the 18 victims had been identified as of 11 a.m. EST Thursday. He added that seven of the gunshot victims were found at Sparetime Recreation’s bowling alley: one woman and six men. A further eight victims were found at Schemengees Bar and Grille: seven men inside and one outside.
Hundreds of law enforcement officers are searching for Card, 40, a previously assigned Army Reserve Firearms Instructor, a petroleum supply specialist with no military commitment.
According to an unconfirmed dispatch from New Hampshire State Police, police were called to the Ridge Road area of Monmouth where someone in camouflage was reportedly seen trying to evade a search helicopter.
Police in Lewiston, Maine, are hunting a gunman who killed 18 people
Card, described as “armed and dangerous” and “highly skilled,” has ties to Massachusetts and police are stationed at the border between the two states. According to police, he should not be approached under any circumstances.
In audio from the Auburn and Lewiston fire and ambulance departments, a dispatcher is heard saying that Card entered Massachusetts about an hour after the shooting on Wednesday evening.
Boston Police responded to the report, saying, “It emanated from Oxford, ME. Passed on with great caution and we are collecting more information, but so far unsubstantiated.’
Lewiston Police Chief David St Pierre asked the public to consider their own safety and patience as they go through “such a large-scale investigation.”
Residents of Lewiston as well as nearby Lisbon and Bowdoin have been advised not to go out Thursday morning as the shooter remains at large. Public schools are closed in Lewiston, Bowdoin and Portland, the state’s largest city, more than 30 miles (48 kilometers) from where the shooting occurred.
The gunman used an AR-15-style rifle to open fire at the Sparetime Recreation bowling alley and then near Schemengees Bar and Grille around 7 p.m. Wednesday. The death toll, which could rise, is the largest from a mass shooting this year. Additionally, the shooting nearly matches Maine’s entire 2022 homicide rate.
Col. William Ross of the Maine State Police said only eight of the 18 victims had been identified as of 11 a.m. Thursday
Robert Card, a 40-year-old Army reservist and firearms instructor, was named Wednesday as a suspect in the killings of 22 people in Lewiston, Maine.
A law enforcement member crosses a road in Lisbon Falls on Thursday
Portland Police and an armored car in a search area in Monmouth, Maine
Law enforcement officers gather outside Lewiston High School on Thursday
Lewiston, a small city of about 38,000, is on lockdown as police hunt for Card, who was placed in a psychiatric facility this summer due to mental health problems. He previously reported hearing voices and threatening to shoot up his National Guard base in Saco, Maine.
“Please remain inside your homes as over a hundred investigators, both local and federal, work to locate Robert Card, a person of interest in the Lewiston shootings,” Maine police said on Facebook. Lisbon Police Chief Ryan McGee has called the entire police department to assist in the search and has closed local businesses.
The first shooting victim has been identified as Justin Karcher, 23, who is on life support, his mother Jessica told the Washington Post, adding that the young man saw his father shot to death in a Walmart parking lot in 2019.
There is a heavy police presence outside Central Maine Medical Center Thursday morning, with police stationed at every entrance with high-powered rifles. The hospital is on lockdown and no visitors are allowed.
The FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and other federal agents have joined the search. Detectives said they are examining cell phone signals, social media and electronic records to build a timeline of his movements before the shooting.
A body is removed from the Schemengees Bar and Grille
Residents of Lewiston as well as nearby Lisbon and Bowdoin have been advised not to go out Thursday morning as the gunman remains at large
Officers confirmed that Card’s vehicle – a white 2013 Subaru – was found near the boat dock in Lisbon, about seven miles southeast of Lewiston, but the suspect was not inside.
Chilling CCTV footage shows Card, from Bowdoin, Maine, pointing his gun as he walks into the bowling alley, while dramatic footage shows terrified people running for their lives.
Police then received calls about a shooting at a second location, Schemengees Bar and Grille, about four miles away. A spokesperson for the bar said: ‘My heart is broken. I’m at a loss for words.’
They said their world was “turned upside down for no good reason,” adding: How can we make any sense of this? We send prayers to everyone.”
Survivors have described how they escaped by fleeing past bowling alleys and hiding behind pins, while the gunman used an AR-15-style rifle to open fire as children played – with teenagers among the wounded.
Meghan Hutchinson described the horror as her daughter was grazed by a bullet in the bowling alley as they ran from the gunman.
‘We were in the back room. Another kid came in whose arm was bleeding profusely… So we barricaded in there and another parent was in the room with me. She had a phone and called 911,” the mother told WMTW.
Lewiston, a small city of about 38,000, is on lockdown as police hunt for Card, who was placed in a psychiatric facility this summer with mental health problems
There is a heavy police presence outside Central Maine Medical Center Thursday morning, with police at every entrance with high-powered rifles
The mayor of Auburn, a city next to Lewistown, told TODAY that some witnesses thought the disaster was a Halloween prank.
Jason Levesque said: ‘They thought it was some kind of Halloween prank or something, first pops if you like, until everything started to escalate quite quickly.’
Survivor Riley Dumont said her 11-year-old daughter was playing in the children’s bowling league when she heard several gunshots. She told ABC News that her father, a retired police officer, pushed the family into a corner.
“I was kind of on top of (my daughter), and my mom was kind of on top of me. We had two other children with us and two other mothers,” Dumont said. At least seven people were killed in the first shooting.
One bowler, who identified himself only by his first name Brandon, said he heard 10 shots ring out before he ran barefoot through the alley and climbed into the bowling machine to hide from the gunman.
President Joe Biden has ordered flags lowered to half-staff as “a sign of respect for the victims of the senseless acts of violence committed on October 25, 2023 in Lewiston, Maine.”