At least 18 people were killed and 13 injured in shootings in Maine, according to the state’s governor, Janet Mills, who made the comments at a news conference on October 26.
A man fatally shot victims at a Lewiston bowling alley and restaurant and then fled into the night on Oct. 25, sparking a massive search by hundreds of officers as scared residents in multiple communities remained locked in their homes under shelters. post advice.
Ms Mills said the suspect in the shooting, Robert Card, is considered armed and dangerous.
“This city did not deserve this terrible attack on its citizens, its peace of mind and its sense of security,” she said.
A police bulletin identified Mr Card as a person of interest in the attack, which sent panicked bowlers climbing behind pins, into corners and a back room when shots rang out around 7pm on October 25. Mr. Card was described as a firearms instructor believed to be in the United States Army Reserve and assigned to a training facility in Saco, Maine.
The document, which was distributed to law enforcement officials, stated that Mr. Card had been committed to a mental health facility for two weeks in the summer of 2023. It did not provide details of his treatment or condition, but said Mr Card had reported ‘hearing voices’. and threats to shoot up the military base. A phone number for Mr. Card listed in public records was not in use.
Maine State Police spokesperson Shannon Moss said the bowling alley shooting happened first.
Previously, Lewiston police said they were dealing with an active shooter incident at Schemengees Bar and Grille and at Sparetime Recreation, a bowling alley about four miles away. A number of parents and children were at Sparetime as part of a children’s bowling competition.
One bowler, who identified himself only as Brandon, said he heard about ten shots, the first of which he thought was a balloon popping.
“I stood with my back to the door. And as soon as I turned around and saw it wasn’t a balloon — he was holding a gun — I just booked him,” he told The Associated Press.
Brandon said he scrambled down the alley, slid into the pin area and climbed up to hide in the machines.
“I was putting on my bowling shoes when it started. “I walked barefoot for five hours,” he said.
The bowling alley is home to traditional bowling and candle pin, a variation of bowling found in New England. It is located approximately 2 miles north of the Bates College campus, on the edge of downtown. The alley has a small bar and is popular for local bowling competitions and children’s parties.
The night of October 25 was ‘industry night’ at Schemengees Bar and Grille, with 25% discounts for customers working in the bar or restaurant industry.
“In a split second your world is turned upside down for no good reason,” the company wrote online, saying that “great people in this community” had been lost.
After the shooting, police, many armed with assault rifles, took up positions as the city fell into an eerie silence — punctuated by occasional sirens — as people hunkered down at home. Schools as far away as Kennebunk, more than 50 miles from Lewiston, closed Oct. 26 out of an abundance of caution. And schools and public buildings were closed in Portland, the state’s largest city.
Bates and Bowdoin colleges canceled classes, as did the Gorham and Portland campuses of the University of Southern Maine.
Diana Florence said her son, a sophomore at Bates College, was staying in his dorm with his roommate with the curtains drawn. Her daughter is a senior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who was locked up twice last month: once when a professor was murdered and again two weeks later when a man brandished a gun in the fraternity building.
“I couldn’t believe it – that this is happening again. It’s happening to my son after it just happened to my daughter,” she said in a telephone interview on October 26.
Ten-year-old Zoey Levesque, who was at the bowling alley with her mother, told WMTW-TV that she was hit by a bullet.
“It’s scary,” she said. “I never thought I would grow up and get a bullet in the leg. And it’s just like, why? Why do people do this?”
The Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Office released two photos of the suspect on its Facebook page showing the gunman walking into an establishment with a gun to his shoulder.
It is the 36th mass killing in the United States this year, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University.
On its website, Central Maine Medical Center said its staff was “responding to a mass casualty and mass shooting” and coordinating with area hospitals to admit patients. The hospital was locked down and police, some armed with guns, stood at the entrances.
Lewiston, the second largest city in Maine with a population of 37,000, emerged as a major center for African immigration to Maine. Somalia’s population, which numbers in the thousands, has changed the demographics of the once predominantly white mill town into one of the most diverse in northern New England.
On the night of October 25, a shelter-in-place advisory was issued for Androscoggin County. That included the community of Lisbon, about 8 miles (13 kilometers) away, after a “vehicle of interest” was found there, authorities said. It was expanded to Bowdoin, in Sagadachoc County, on Oct. 26.
Ms Mills previously released a statement reiterating instructions for people to take shelter. President Joe Biden spoke by phone with Mills and members of the Senate and House of Representatives and offered “full federal support in the wake of this horrific attack,” according to a White House statement.
The October 25 death toll was staggering for a state that had 29 homicides for the entire year in 2022.
Maine does not require a permit to carry guns, and the state has a long-standing culture of gun ownership tied to hunting and shooting traditions.
Ms. Florence, from New York, said she and her son talked and texted late into the night at Bates College, and he was shocked but OK. In the meantime, she was left angry.
“Honestly, I think this is about our laws. That we can’t seem to pass any sensible gun laws or attack mental health care the way we should,” she said. “And our children pay the price. And even if they are not killed or injured, the trauma that will linger long after the semester is over is palpable.”
Some recent efforts by gun control advocates to tighten state gun laws have failed. Proposals to require background checks for private gun sales and impose a 72-hour waiting period for gun purchases failed earlier this year. Proposals focused on school safety and banning bump stocks failed in 2019.
State residents have also rejected some efforts to tighten gun laws in Maine. A proposal to require background checks on gun sales failed in a public vote in 2016.
This story was reported by The Associated Press. AP journalists Patrick Whittle in Portland, Maine, Michael Balsamo in New York, Darlene Superville in Washington, Michael Casey in Boston and Holly Ramer and Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, contributed to this report.