Maine authorities continued a massive manhunt on the second day of their intensive search for an army reservist accused of fatally shooting 18 people and wounding 13 at a bowling alley and a bar in the town of Lewiston.
People scoured the woods and searched hundreds of acres of family-owned property. They event sent dive teams with sonar to the bottom of a local river and scrutinized a possible suicide note as they hunted for Robert Card who disappeared shortly after the massacre.
Law enforcement officials gave no indication of any leads on Card’s whereabouts. Michael Sauschuck, the commissioner of Maine’s department of public safety, would only say that authorities are leaving all their options open.
“We’re going to be all over the place,” Sauschuck said at a news conference that was notable for a lack of any real updates.
Card, 40, is suspected of killing 18 people and wounding 13 more in shootings at a bar and a bowling alley in Lewiston. The suspect fled the scene of the shooting on Wednesday night and remains at large while a massive manhunt by local, county, state and federal officials continues.
Sauschuck admitted there had been few developments in the investigation with which to update the public. But he warned: “Every minute that this goes on we are more and more concerned, because what is the next thing that’s going to happen?”
He said that law enforcement is going to be “putting divers in the water along the Androscoggin River”, which is near Lisbon, about eight miles from Lewiston where the gunman perpetrated his rampage on Wednesday night.
Sauschuck added that the divers will be checking for evidence and for “potential bodies”.
“You’re going to see a lot of activity here … then we’re going to have some sonar … so picking up shadows … anything can be under there,” he said.
A car to which the suspect has connections was located near the boat launch on the river in Lisbon on Wednesday night.
Late on Friday afternoon, Sauschuck said that a shelter-in-place order for the region had now been rescinded almost 48 hours after the shootings, except for keeping a ban on hunting in Lewiston and three nearby communities. That ended two days of lockdown for thousands of local residents, which had led to empty streets, closed schools and shuttered businesses across a swathe of the state.
“This is not to say the crisis is over … we want residents to remain vigilant,” Sauschuck said.
The attacks stunned a state of only 1.3 million people that has one of the country’s lowest homicide rates: 29 killings in all of 2022.
Card is a sergeant at a nearby US army reserve base who law enforcement officials said had been temporarily committed to a mental health facility over the summer.
On the night of the shootings, Card’s trail led to Lisbon, about seven miles (11km) to the south-east, where Maine state police found a white SUV they believe Card used to get away and parked at a boat launch on the river. Public records showed he has three watercraft registrations: two Sea-Doos and a Bayliner.
Guns are lightly regulated in Maine, where about half of all adults live in a household with a gun, according to a 2020 study by Rand Corporation. Maine does not require a permit to buy or carry a gun, and it does not have “red flag” laws seen in some other states that allow law enforcement to temporarily disarm people deemed to be dangerous.
The US representative Jared Golden, a Democrat from Lewiston, told reporters he has reversed his opposition to an assault weapons ban as a result of the tragedy.
“I now call on the United States Congress to ban assault rifles, like the one used by the perpetrator of this mass killing in my home town,” Golden told a news conference.
Congress has been mostly unable to pass gun control, even after previous tragedies such as the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, where 20 first-graders and six adults were shot dead.
Janet Mills, the Democratic governor, said the community was just beginning to come to terms with the murders.
“This is a dark day for Maine,” she said. “The people of Lewiston are enduring immeasurable pain. I wish I could take that pain off your hearts, off your shoulders. But I promise you this, we will all help you carry that grief.”
Victims have begun to be named by relatives. A retired Sears mechanic and keen bowler, Bob Violette, 76, was killed during a children’s bowling league event at the alley, “trying to protect the kids he was responsible for”, according to a family statement reported by the Portland Press Herald.
Tricia Asselin, 53, was shot as she tried to call 911 from the alley’s counter, her brother, DJ Johnson, told CNN. “She wasn’t going to run. She was going to try and help,” he said.
The incident, which took place at about 7pm on Wednesday, was the 565th mass shooting in the US, the Gun Violence Archive said. The archive defines a mass shooting as one in which at least four victims are wounded or killed, excluding the shooter.
Sauschuck said Card had mental health issues and was released this summer after a short stay at a treatment facility. Sauschuck said Card reported hearing “voices in his head” and made threats to carry out a shooting at a national guard base in Saco.
A clearer picture of Card’s background has begun to emerge. An account believed to be his on X, formerly Twitter, was suspended by the social media company, but not before screenshots began to circulate of likes and retweets praising far-right figures.
Army records showed Card joined the military in 2002 and was a petroleum supply officer who did not deploy overseas. Colleagues told CNN he was a skilled marksman.
Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report
