Nov 2023. Blues Vol 39 No. 11

AROUND THE COUNTRY

AROUND THE COUNTRY LEWISTON, ME. 22 Killed and 60 Injured in multiple shootings at a bowling alley and a restaurant in Lewiston has the suspect on the run and hundreds of officers searching for him. By David Sharp, Associated Press LEWISTON, ME. — Authorities carried out a multi-state search on land and water last month for a U.S. Army reservist who they say killed 22 people and wounded 60 in a mass shooting at a bowling alley and bar that sent panicked patrons scrambling under tables and behind bowling pins and gripped the entire state of Maine in fear. Schools, doctor’s offices and grocery stores closed and people stayed behind locked door in cities as far away as 50 miles from the scenes of Wednesday night’s shootings in Lewiston. President Joe Biden ordered all U.S. flags to be flown at halfstaff as condolences poured in from around the nation and at home, including from Maine native and author Stephen King, who called it “madness.” 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. The shooting suspect, Robert Card, is considered armed and dangerous and should not be approached, authorities said at 44 The BLUES a news conference. Card underwent a mental health evaluation in mid-July after he began acting erratically during training, a U.S. official told The Associated Press. Police said they have had no reported sightings of Card since the shootings at Schemengees Bar and Grille and at Sparetime Recreation, a bowling alley about 4 miles away. The Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Office released two photos of the suspect walking into the bowling alley with a rifle raised to his shoulder. Eight murder warrants were issued for Card, 40, after authorities identified eight of the victims, police said. Ten more will likely be issued once the names of the rest of the dead are confirmed, said Maine State Police Col. William Ross. Three of the 60 people wounded in the shootings were in critical condition and five were hospitalized but stable, Central Maine Medical Center officials said. Authorities launched a multistate search for Card on land and water. The Coast Guard

sent out a patrol boat Thursday morning along the Kennebec River but after hours of searching, they found “nothing out of the ordinary,” said Chief Petty Officer Ryan Smith, who is in charge of the Coast Guard’s Boothbay Harbor Station. Card’s car had been discovered beside a boat launch near the Androscoggin River, which connects to the Kennebec, and Card’s 15-foot (4.5-meter) boat remains unaccounted for, Smith said. But he added that officials didn’t have any specific intelligence that Card might have escaped aboard his boat. “We’re just doing our due diligence,” he said. The Canada Border Services Agency issued an “armed and dangerous” alert to its officers stationed along the Canada-U.S. border. A bulletin sent to police across the country after the attack said Card had been committed to a mental health facility for two weeks this past summer after “hearing voices and threats to shoot up” a military base. A U.S. official said Card was training with the Army Reserve’s 3rd Battalion, 304th Infantry Regiment in West Point, New York, when commanders became concerned about him. State police took Card to the Keller Army Community Hospital at West Point for evaluation, according to the official, who was not authorized to publicly discuss the information and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. Immediately after the shooting, police armed with rifles took positions around Lewiston, Maine’s second largest city, with a population of 37,000. The once overwhelmingly white mill community has become one of the most diverse cities in northern New England after a major influx of immigrants, mostly from Somalia, in recent years. UPDATE - OCT. 31ST A sense of relief washed over a grieving Maine community that endured two days of fear after authorities announced the man accused of killing 18 people at a bowling alley and a restaurant earlier this week was found dead on Friday, Oct. 27th. The body of Robert Card, 40, was discovered near a river some 10 miles from the shattered community of Lewiston with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said. Card’s body was found inside a box trailer sitting in an overflow parking lot of Maine Recycling Corporation in Lisbon, Maine Public Safety Commissioner Michael Sauschuck said at a news conference Saturday morning. Card had recently been fired from the recycling center, a law enforcement source told CNN. “Some of those trailers are locked. Some of those trailers aren’t,” Sauschuck said. “He was found inside one of those boxes that was unlocked from the outside.” Two firearms were found alongside Card’s body, Sauschuck said, and he was wearing the same sweatshirt seen in surveillance video of the Wednesday night shooting, suggesting he never changed his clothes. It is unclear when he took his own life. Sauschuck said the facility was initially searched and considered clear, but the owner of Maine Recycling directed law enforcement to additional trailers that investigators did not initially realize were part of the same recycling center. The discovery ended a roughly two-day manhunt that left many residents in the serene, picturesque area living on edge and fearful to leave their homes. The BLUES 45