New Delhi: Hundreds of police officers in America’s Maine state have mounted an overnight manhunt for a “person of interest” after two shootings in Lewiston Wednesday evening resulted in at least 16 dead and scores injured.
Warning residents of Lewiston and neighbouring towns to lock their doors and take shelter, police said the suspect Robert Card, 40, should be “considered armed and dangerous”. Officers said Card was a certified firearms instructor and a member of the US Army Reserve.
He had recently threatened to carry out a shooting at a National Guard facility in Saco, Maine, officials said, adding Card also reported mental health issues, including hearing voices.
Law enforcement has encouraged “all businesses to lock down and or close” while the investigation takes place. Lewiston public schools, and those in nearby districts, have cancelled classes Thursday. Schools have also been closed in Maine’s largest city Portland.
Cops also shared an image of the vehicle they were looking for – a small white SUV with a front bumper believed to be painted black – which the Maine State Police confirmed was the suspect’s car. It was located in the town of Lisbon, eight miles southeast of Lewiston city.
The shooting began around 7 pm Wednesday, first at the bowling alley Sparetime Recreation and then at the restaurant Schemengees Bar and Grille, reports said.
Sparetime Recreation had families enjoying the evening playing games when shots rang out, CNN reported. “Eyewitnesses described seeing people, including children, flee from the location and being patted down outside by police officers. There was also footage of first responders loading a victim into an ambulance outside the business,” the report said.
Schemengees Bar and Grille posted a message of grief on its Facebook page early Thursday morning, saying: “My heart is crushed. I am at a loss for words. In a split second your world gets turn (sic) upside down for no good reason… We loss (sic) great people in this community. How can we make any sense of this. Sending out prayers to everyone.”
Lewiston’s neighbouring town Auburn’s mayor Jason Levesque said he wasn’t aware of any children among those killed, but knew one high school student who was wounded. “Auburn and Lewiston are side by side… a river separates us. Combined, our population is around 60,000. You cannot help but know people who know someone, so this will impact every corner of our community,” he was quoted as saying by CNN.
Lewiston’s shooting added to the list of 565 reported cases of mass shootings in the United States this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which describes mass shootings as those in which four or more people are shot, excluding the shooter.
Nearly 1 in 5 US adults have had a family member killed by a gun, including homicides and suicides, according to a 2023 survey from KFF (formerly known as the Kaiser Family Foundation), CNN reported. About the same proportion of adults have been personally threatened with a gun, and about 1 in 6 adults has witnessed an injury from a shooting, the survey found.
The Washington Post writes that gun rights advocates are a powerful force in Maine politics, “and endorsements from the National Rifle Association and the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine are sought by both Republicans and rural Democrats”. Gun-control advocates in the more populated areas of southern Maine have failed to win support for measures such as requiring background checks on firearms sales at gun shows.
Also read: At least 22 killed, over 50 wounded in mass shootings across Maine