Shocked and frightened Maine residents stayed home for a second night as hundreds of heavily armed police and FBI agents searched for Army reservist Robert Card, who died in Shootings at a bowling alley and a bar killed 18 people in Maine’s worst mass killing. National History.
Much of Thursday’s search focused on a property owned by a Carder relative in rural Bowdoin, where trucks and vans filled with armed agents from the FBI and other agencies eventually surrounded a home. Card and others inside were repeatedly ordered to surrender.
“You need to get out now with your hands empty. Your hands in the air,” the police officer said over the loudspeaker. In most cases, when police serve a warrant — even for a suspect wanted for a violent crime — they quickly enter a home.
But hours later, after repeated announcements and searches, authorities left, and state police said it was still unclear whether Card had been at the location.
Richard Goddard lives on the road where the search took place and knew the Cards. Robert Card, four years his junior, knew the terrain well, Goddard said.
“This is where he established himself. He grew up here,” he said. “He knew every ledge, every bush that was hidden behind.”
The search for Card, a 40-year-old trained firearms instructor, led police to search several homes and pursue every lead. Authorities said he should be considered armed and dangerous and should not be approached.
On Wednesday, Card was suspected of firing at least one rifle at a bar and a bowling alley in Lewiston, Maine’s second-largest city about 15 miles (24 kilometers) from Bowdoin. Authorities said the evening shooting left 18 people dead and 13 injured, with three of them still in hospital in critical condition.
Authorities did not disclose how many guns were used or how they were obtained.
In the city 50 miles (80 kilometers) away from the scene of the shooting, schools, doctors’ offices and grocery stores were closed and people locked behind their doors. Portland, Maine’s largest city, closed its public buildings and the Canada Border Services Agency issued an “armed and dangerous” alert to officers stationed at the U.S. border.
The streets of Lewiston and surrounding communities were nearly deserted late Thursday night. Occasionally, a truck or police patrol will drive through a Halloween neighborhood dotted with giant glowing pumpkins and ghosts.
Schools in Lewiston will remain closed Friday, while schools in Portland will decide in the morning whether to open. Bates College in Lewiston also canceled classes Friday and postponed the inauguration of the school’s first black president.
April Stevens lives in the same neighborhood where one of the shootings occurred. She turned on all the lights and locked the doors throughout the night. She knew someone had been killed at the bar and another had been injured and needed surgery.
“We pray for everyone,” Stevens said through tears.
The attacks have shocked a state of just 1.3 million people, which has one of the lowest homicide rates in the country: 29 homicides in all of 2022.
Maine Gov. Janet Mills pledged to take all necessary steps to find Cudd and “hold accountable anyone responsible for this atrocity … and seek full justice for the victims and their families.”
As authorities searched for Card, details about his recent behavior emerged. A U.S. official told The Associated Press that Card began acting erratically while in the reserves and underwent a mental health evaluation in mid-July.
A bulletin sent to police across the country after the attack said Card was sent to a mental health facility for two weeks last summer after “hearing calls and threats to shoot up” a military base.
No license is required to carry a firearm in Maine, and the state has a long gun-owning culture closely tied to its hunting and shooting sports traditions. Remembering our strong support for gun rights, Lawmakers pass ‘yellow flag’ law In 2019, this will require police to conduct a medical assessment of anyone deemed to be a danger before attempting to take away their firearms. Critics, however, charge that this is a weaker version of the tougher “red flag” laws that many other states have adopted.
Neighbor Dave Letarte said Card’s family let them hunt deer on their property and were friendly, although Letarte said he noticed Card seemed to have mental problems for a while.
“People have problems, but you wouldn’t expect them to get into trouble like this,” Letart said. “I was shocked when we saw this on the news last night.”
The card phone number listed in public records is not available. A woman who answered a phone call from one of Card’s relatives said Thursday afternoon that the Cards were helping the FBI. She did not reveal her name or other details.
After eight victims were identified, authorities issued eight murder warrants for Card, police said. Maine State Police Capt. William Ross said 10 more victims may be released once the remaining names are confirmed.
Central Maine Medical Center officials said that of the 13 people injured in the shooting, three were in serious condition and the other five were hospitalized but were stable.
The attack began just before 7pm on Wednesday at Just-In-Time Recreation, where a children’s bowling league was taking place.
Patrick Poulin was supposed to be at the bowling center with his 15-year-old son, who was participating in Wednesday’s practice. They remain at home, but he estimated there could be dozens of young bowlers ages 4 to 18 and their parents at the facility. Pullin said his brother was there when the shooting occurred and was babysitting some children outside.
“He was in shock,” Poulin said Thursday. “Today I realized, wow, I almost did it. I know a lot of people are hurting.”
Less than 15 minutes later, Schemegees Bar and Grille, a few miles away, began receiving an influx of 911 calls.
Card’s search spanned land and water. The Coast Guard sent a patrol boat down the Kennebec River Thursday morning, but after hours of searching, they “didn’t find anything unusual,” said Chief Petty Officer Ryan in charge of Coast Guard Station Boothbay Harbor. Smith said.
Smith said a car believed to belong to Card was found under a boat near the Androscoggin River in the town of Lisbon, which connects to the Kennebec River, and Card’s 15-foot (4.5-meter) The boat remains missing.
In many past mass shootings in the United States, suspects, dead or alive, were found within minutes. But a full day after the shooting, Card remained at large.
On Thursday, on an unusually warm fall day, Lewiston was nearly deserted. Changing message signs remind people to stay behind locked doors.
At Bates College, students remained in their dormitories with the blinds closed, said Diana Florence, whose son is a sophomore. She has a daughter who is a senior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which was locked down twice last month due to shootings and a man with a gun.
“I can’t believe it – this is happening again. After what happened to my daughter, this happened to my son,” she said in a phone interview Thursday.
The shooting occurred for the 36th time mass murder According to reports, this year in the United States database Maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University.
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