2023 Lewiston Shootings

On October 25, 2023, Robert Card carried out a spree shooting in Lewiston, Maine, United States, resulting in the death of 18 individuals and injuries to 13 others. The initial attack occurred at the Just-in-Time Recreation bowling alley during a youth league event, followed shortly by a second shooting at the Schemengees Bar & Grille Restaurant. Subsequent to these events, Card escaped, prompting the Androscoggin County Sheriff's Office to initiate an extensive manhunt and release his photograph identifying him as the suspect.

Forty-nine hours later, on October 27, authorities discovered Card dead in a tractor-trailer near a recycling center in Lisbon, where he had been recently employed, due to a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The shooting is the tenth-deadliest in U.S. history and the deadliest in the history of Maine.

Events

Shootings

The first shooting occurred on October 25, 2023, at Just-In-Time Recreation, a Lewiston, Maine, bowling alley, during a youth league event. The shooter, 40-year-old Robert Card, used a Ruger SFAR semi-automatic rifle chambered in .308 Winchester and equipped with an extended magazine, flashlight and optic. Police received the first emergency calls at 6:56p.m. EDT. Plainclothes officers at a nearby shooting range also heard the gunshots and responded. The earliest officers to arrive at the scene did so within four minutes of the first call. Seven people were killed at Just-In-Time.

Shortly after, at 7:08, a second shooting was reported at Schemengees Bar & Grille Restaurant, south of the bowling alley. Officers arrived at the scene two minutes later. Eight people were killed at this location, seven of them inside the building and the eighth outside. Additionally, three injured victims would succumb to their injuries while in the hospital.

At 8:06, the Androscoggin County Sheriff's Office and the Maine State Police alerted residents of an active shooter. The sheriff's office also released images of Card inside the bowling alley with a " high-powered assault-style rifle", as well as an image of his 2013 Subaru Outback, warning residents that the shooter was "armed and dangerous".

The Central Maine Medical Center coordinated with local area hospitals to take in victims. Several were taken to the Maine Medical Center in Portland, the largest hospital in the state.

Manhunt

Three hours after the shooting, police in Lisbon, a small town southeast of Lewiston, found Card's abandoned vehicle at a boat launch along the Androscoggin River. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives assisted local authorities.

On October 26, the Maine State Police and Governor Janet Mills confirmed the number of victims and announced that an arrest warrant was issued for the suspect, who was charged with eight counts of murder. Police surrounded a house in Bowdoin while executing a search warrant.

On October 27, Michael Sauschuck, public safety commissioner of Maine, said that police were using dive teams, sonar, and remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs) to search for underwater activity near where Card's vehicle was found in Lisbon. Sauschuck said they did not definitively know Card's means of escape. That same day, the shelter-in-place order in Lewiston was rescinded, but hunting restrictions in Bowdoin, Lewiston, Lisbon, and Monmouth were imposed.

At 7:45 p.m. of October 27, Card was found dead near his former place of employment, a recycling center close to the Androscoggin River in Lisbon. The recycling center had been searched the night before, but his body was found in a box truck on a part of the land that had not been searched previously. The manner of death was suicide and the cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head; the Maine Chief Medical Examiner's autopsy revealed he had likely died 8 to 12 hours before being found.

The hunting restrictions that had been put in place were subsequently removed.

Victims

A total of eighteen people were killed; thirteen others were injured. Seven were killed at Just-In-Time Recreation, eight were killed at Schemengees Bar & Grille Restaurant, and three died in a hospital. Four of those killed at Schemengees were deaf and had been participating in a cornhole tournament for the deaf community. Ranging in age from 14 to 76, the dead were all identified on October 27.

Perpetrator

Robert Russell Card II (April 4, 1983 – October 27, 2023) was a longtime resident of Bowdoin, Maine. He was identified by the police on October 25 as a person of interest and designated as a suspect the next day. Card was a sergeant first class in the United States Army Reserve and enlisted in December 2002. He was a petroleum supply specialistMaine shooting suspect is U.S. Army Reserve petroleum supply specialist, Army says
Reuters (October 26, 2023). and had no overseas or combat deployments.

Card attended Bowdoin Central School and later Mount Ararat High School in nearby Topsham. After graduating in 2001, he studied engineering at the University of Maine from 2001 to 2004 but did not complete his education. Card, known for his quiet and friendly demeanor, had a history of being dependable and causing no trouble for much of his life, according to his family. Before 2023, his only recorded interactions with law enforcement were a 2007 arrest for DUI, to which he pleaded guilty, and two speeding charges in 2001 and 2002.

In 2022, Card's hearing began to deteriorate, which his family noticed was accompanied by a change in his demeanor, becoming sullen and short-tempered. By the spring of 2023, he started to believe that people at a local market and the bar where he enjoyed playing cornhole were gossiping about him and labeling him a pedophile. He also experienced significant weight loss.

In May 2023, Card's son and ex-wife reported his declining mental health to a Sagadahoc County sheriff's deputy, associating his reports of auditory hallucinations to being fitted for hearing aids in February 2023. In July 2023, leaders of Card's unit (3rd Battalion, 304th Infantry Regiment) made a report to law enforcement about Card's alarming comments and erratic behavior while training at Camp Smith (close to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York).Joshua Solomon & Phillip Pantuso
State Police didn't pursue 'red flag' order for Maine shooting suspect
''Times-Union'' (October 28, 2023). The Army Reserve specifically told law enforcement that he threatened to "shoot up" a military base in Saco, Maine. He was removed from training exercises, and the New York State Police responded and transported Card to West Point's Keller Army Community Hospital for psychological evaluation. He received two weeks of additional treatment at the Four Winds Psychiatric Hospital in Katonah, New York. Doctors prescribed lithium, but did not assess Card for a traumatic brain injury, according to his sister. After leaving the hospital, he discontinued the medication.

Card returned home on August 3, 2023, and the Army barred him from handling guns or ammunition, deeming him a "non-deployable" serviceman. That same day, a gun shop in Auburn, Maine, denied his access to purchase a silencer because he responded "yes" to the question "Have you ever been adjudicated as a mental defective OR ever been committed to a mental institution?" on the ATF Form 4473. In the subsequent months, Card had several angry and violent episodes. On one occasion, his mother found him crying on her front porch due to his delusions of being talked about. He also lost his job as a recycling truck driver.

In mid-September 2023, the Army Reserve requested that the Sagadahoc County Sheriff's Department conduct a well-being check on Card, after he punched a fellow reservist who asked Card to stop talking about "shooting up places and people". Card did not answer the door but could be heard moving inside his trailer home by the sheriff deputy outside. Because Card was described by his commanders as a top marksman, the deputy requested backup from the Kennebec County Sheriff's Department, about 45 minutes away, and wrote in a report that "due to being in a very disadvantageous position we decided to back away".

According to a police affidavit, Card's family members indicated Card believed he was being broadcast as a pedophile online by businesses and people including Just-In-Time, Schemengee's, and a manager at Schemengee's, who was one of the eight victims there that night.

A sample of Card's brain tissue was examined at Boston University's Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (C.T.E.) center to see if he had suffered injury or trauma during his military service. The findings, released by Card's family, showed "moderately severe" damage to white matter and myelin, scarring, and inflammation. Although not C.T.E., the traumatic brain injury resembled that in veterans exposed to blasts. Despite never seeing combat, Card's role as a grenade instructor would have exposed him to thousands of blasts. Researchers concluded that although it is uncertain if the brain injury was the root cause of Card's change in behavior, it is likely that it "played a role in his symptoms".

Aftermath

Following the shootings, a shelter-in-place order was implemented in Lewiston, and schools were placed on lockdown, along with schools across the southern Maine area. Auburn issued its own shelter-in-place order and told businesses to lock down as well. Classes at schools in the Lewiston Public Schools district, Central Maine Community College, and Bates College were canceled on October 26, as well as several additional school districts within a 50-mile radius. The shelter-in-place advisory was extended to Bowdoin on October 26. Bates College also postponed its presidential inauguration, previously scheduled for October 27, until further notice. Additionally, extra security measures were taken along the Canada–U.S. border following an "armed and dangerous" alert issued by the Canada Border Services Agency.

Shortly after the shooting, there was an increase in the number of individuals within the state looking to purchase a weapon. A gun store owner told reporters that he had done more business the day after the shooting than he had in the prior month. Although deer season was scheduled to start the Saturday after the shooting, he believed most of the sales were safety related. Prospective buyers allegedly waited in line for over an hour at one gun store.

Social media

In the days after the shootings, multiple outlets reported on Card's use of social media prior to the shootings. Card had used Twitter to like and retweet far-right extremist views, including transphobic views by right-wing figures like Tucker Carlson and Donald Trump Jr..

Disinformation

According to '' Wired'', right after the shooting, social media platforms such as TikTok, Facebook, and Twitter were flooded with disinformation about Card. This included false claims that he had been arrested and was no longer at large. Some stated inaccurately, based on information about someone else with the same name, that Card was arrested in 2016 for possessing and disseminating sexually explicit materials.

Reactions

Local and state

Lewiston mayor Carl Sheline said that he was "heartbroken". Jason Levesque, mayor of Auburn, Lewiston's twin city, added "we will get this situation settled." Maine Governor Janet Mills urged residents to follow law enforcement instructions. Nirav Shah, former head of the Maine Center for Disease Control and currently the deputy director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, offered his condolences for Joshua Seal, a victim who had been employed under Shah as an American Sign Language interpreter for the deaf during the COVID-19 pandemic. Similar condolences were offered by Karen Hopkins, director of the Maine Education Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, as three of the victims killed were graduates of the center.

Federal

U.S. Senator Angus King of Maine wrote on Twitter that he was "deeply sad". Fellow Senator Susan Collins remarked, "This is the darkest day in Maine history in my lifetime." Jared Golden—who represents Lewiston—and Chellie Pingree, both U.S. Representatives from Maine, released statements expressing shock at the events. Following the shooting, Golden further announced his support for an assault weapons ban, reversing his previous opposition to gun control measures and asked for "forgiveness" from the community and victims' families for his previous position. On October 25, President Joe Biden made calls to several Maine lawmakers to offer full federal support. On October 26, he ordered that U.S. flags be lowered to half-staff for five days as "a mark of respect for the victims of the senseless acts of violence perpetrated in Lewiston, Maine". In a later statement, Biden urged lawmakers to impose an assault weapons ban and introduce more gun regulations, saying it is "not normal, and we cannot accept it" and that current safety measures are "simply not enough".

See also

* 2023 Bowdoin–Yarmouth shootings, shootings that occurred in Maine in April 2023
* List of mass shootings in the United States in 2023

References

External links

* Victims' details
A teen bowler, a shipbuilder and a sign language interpreter are among the Maine shooting victims
AP News, November 1, 2023.

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