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LEWISTON, Maine – Police missed two clear opportunities to finish a dragnet that locked down and terrified Maine’s second-largest town after a gunman killed 18 people at a bowling alley and a bar following a up to date spiral into paranoia.
The frame of Robert Card was once found Friday in a trailer at a recycling heart in Lisbon Falls that police had searched an afternoon previous. Card died of an obvious self-inflicted gunshot wound, but it surely was once unclear when, authorities mentioned.
The 40-year-old was once suspected of additionally injuring 13 other people during the shooting rampage on Wednesday night time in Lewiston.
Lisbon Police Chief Ryan McGee mentioned regulation enforcement scoured the Maine Recycling Corp. assets, the place Card as soon as labored, and cleared it on Thursday, however didn’t test some other a part of the corporate’s land within reach. Officers got here again early Friday morning and once more discovered not anything.
Another group returned that night time and searched the opposite a part of the valuables that had no longer been checked, and located Card’s frame within the trailer at the side of two firearms, McGee mentioned. A rifle had been discovered Wednesday night time in Card’s deserted automobile within reach.
Authorities recovered a mess of guns right through their seek for Card and consider he had legally purchased his guns, together with the ones recovered in his automobile and close to his frame, mentioned Jim Ferguson, the particular agent in command of the Boston place of job of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. He declined to supply particular information about the guns, together with their make and type, and would not say precisely what number of have been discovered.
Investigators are nonetheless on the lookout for a reason for the bloodbath, however have an increasing number of been interested in Card’s mental health historical past. State Department of Public Safety Commissioner Michael Sauschuck mentioned Card was once listening to voices and had paranoia, including that he believed “people were talking about him and there may even have been some voices at play.”
Last summer season Card underwent a mental health analysis after he started performing unevenly at an Army coaching facility in New York, officers mentioned. A bulletin despatched to police in a while after this week’s assault mentioned Card had been dedicated to a mental health facility for 2 weeks after “hearing voices and threats to shoot up” an army base.
At a news convention Saturday, Sauschuck mentioned there was once no proof that Card had ever been involuntarily dedicated to a mental health facility, which might’ve made it unlawful for him to posses guns. A easy analysis or voluntary dedication wouldn’t have brought on the sort of prohibition, he mentioned.
Under Maine’s yellow flag regulation, regulation enforcement can detain any person they suspect is mentally in poor health and poses a danger to themselves or others. The regulation differs from pink flag regulations in that it calls for police first to get a scientific practitioner to judge the individual and to find them to be a danger sooner than police can petition a pass judgement on to reserve the seizure of the individual’s firearms.
“Just because there appears to be a mental health nexus to this scenario, the vast majority of people with mental health diagnosis will never hurt anybody,” Sauschuck mentioned.
Police discovered a word in Card’s house addressed to a liked one with the passcode to his telephone and checking account quantity, Sauschuck mentioned. The commissioner mentioned he wouldn’t describe it as an particular suicide word however the tone indicated that was once the intent.
Family participants of Card informed federal investigators that he had not too long ago mentioned listening to voices and was extra targeted at the bowling alley and bar, in keeping with cops who spoke to The Associated Press on situation of anonymity so as to talk about main points of the investigation.
Street life returned to Lewiston on Saturday after a dayslong lockdown within the town of 37,000. Joggers took benefit of the nice and cozy climate. People walked canines thru downtown, picked up espresso and visited different retail outlets that had been closed for the reason that taking pictures.
“Right now, we want Maine to be remembered as the community that came together after this tragic event,” McGee mentioned, recalling how he drove into the city Saturday and noticed ”other people strolling the streets, other people sitting on porches, waving. Giving the thumbs-up.”
For many residents it was a day to reflect, mourn and, for some, take the first tentative steps toward normalcy. Some went hunting on the opening day of firearm season for deer, and one family handed out buckets of flowers in downtown. Others gathered at a makeshift memorial to the victims down the street from the bar targeted by Card.
William Brackett, whose namesake son was among those killed, visited the memorial Saturday and said he could feel pent up tension leave his body when he learned Card was dead.
“I’m telling you, if I had a bottle of champagne, I would’ve popped it and celebrated,” he said.
Billy Brackett was shot multiple times and died on the way to the hospital, his father said. He said his son didn’t let his deafness stop him from doing anything in life, including playing multiple sports.
“He was just a gentle person. He was big and rugged, and I guess maybe that’s why all the little kids loved him. They swarmed to a bigger person,” Brackett said. “Maybe they thought, ‘He’ll be our protector.’”
The Rev. Daniel Greenleaf of the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in Lewiston said parishioners had been sharing stories about people killed in the shootings and also looking to help each other in the aftermath of the tragedy.
“To see people hurt — that’s always hard for me. I can’t fix this. As much as I want to, I can’t fix this,” Greenleaf said. “Together we can pray, and I hope it at least alleviates some of the heaviness that our own parishioners feel.”
In Lisbon Falls, not far from where Card’s body was found, about 150 people gathered for an evening vigil at a grassy field. They lit candles, and a volunteer group walked trauma therapy dogs around.
Ben Nitschke and Daniel Fuss, a married couple originally from Australia, drove up from their home in Portland to attend. They said Maine has been incredibly welcoming since they arrived in 2019 and they wanted to be with their adopted community as it mourns.
“This is the first time we ever experienced something like this,” said Nitschke, 32. “We just wanted to come pay our respects.”
Jonathan Jones, pastor of Lisbon Falls Baptist Church, read a prayer and thanked police. He then recited the first names of the 18 people killed in the shooting.
“We’ll rise from these ashes by the grace and mercy of god,” he said.
The deadliest shootings in Maine history stunned a state of 1.3 million people that has relatively little violent crime and had only 29 killings in all of 2022.
Three patients remained in critical condition at Central Maine Medical Center, and a fourth was stable, hospital officials said. Another patient was transported to Massachusetts General Hospital, and the rest were discharged.
A stay-at-home order in place during the massive search was lifted Friday afternoon, hours before authorities announced they had found Card’s body at the Maine Recycling Corp.
The company said Card was a commercial driver for approximately one year and left his job voluntarily late last spring.
The Cards have lived in Bowdoin for generations, according to neighbors, and various members of the family own hundreds of acres in the area. The family owned the local sawmill and years ago donated the land for a local church.
Sauschuck praised the family for calling investigators to provide his name soon after police released surveillance pictures of the shooter.
“This family has been incredibly cooperative with us,” Sauschuck said. “Truth be told, the first three people that called us … were family members.”
The Lewiston shootings have been the thirty sixth mass killing within the United States this yr, in keeping with a database maintained via AP and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University.
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Whittle reported from Portland, Maine. Associated Press newshounds Robert Bukaty in Lewiston, Michael Balsamo in New York and Michael Casey in Boston contributed.
