A massive manhunt is taking place in Maine for Robert Card who is believed to be responsible for a mass shooting that left 22 people dead and others injured
According to initial reports Robert Card is alleged to have gone into the Schemengees Bar & Grill on Lincoln Street in Lewiston, Maine. Card would open fire with a automatic weapon killing twenty two people and injuring 30 others.
Robert Card who is a firearms instructor and a member of the Army reserves is to be considered extremely dangerous and armed. A large shelter in place has been issued for Lewiston Maine as hundreds of officers attempt to locate him and put him in custody
- Robert Card would be found dead on October 27 2023 from a self inflicted gunshot. The death count for this horrible event is 18 people not 22 as earlier reported
Robert Card News
Audio from police scanners described a chaotic scene in Lewiston, Maine, where a male suspect carried out a mass shooting at the Schemengees Bar and Just-in-Time Bowling — which is better known by its former name Sparetime Recreation — miles apart, Wednesday evening leaving at least 22 people dead and 30 wounded.
The Lewiston Police Department said Wednesday night the suspect remains at-large and has identified Robert Card, 40, of Bowdoin, Maine, as a person of interest. Maine Department of Public Safety Commissioner Mike Sauschuck said the shootings started at approximately 6:56 p.m.
According to audio from a police scanner, Lewiston police responded to calls of an “active shooter” at Schemengees Bar & Grill on Lincoln Street, at approximately 7:02 p.m. They initially reported just “six to eight” victims at the recreation center before additional units responded to the scene. “I need multiple units, or if there are multiple units at Schemengees to stay as there are multiple victims in a field north of Schemengees. We will update.”
As officers were responding to the bar, additional calls came in regarding a shooting just miles north at the bowling alley located on Mollison Way. The audio details multiple units responding to both locations, possible additional locations and ensuring enough ambulances were available to transport victims. Dispatch was also locating several police units to the hospital and to the airport.
The chaotic audio came as a male suspect opened fire at the bar and the bowling alley, prompting a massive manhunt. The two locations are located about four miles apart.
Hundreds of law enforcement officers are seeking Robert Card after Wednesday night’s shooting. A police bulletin identified him as a trained firearms instructor and said Robert Card is believed to be in the Army Reserve, assigned to a training facility in Saco, Maine.
Fox News’ David Spunt reported, citing a senior law enforcement source, that authorities are aware Card may have a police scanner and could be actively listening to some of their movements.
“My heart is crushed,” Schemengees Bar & Grill wrote on Facebook. “I am at a loss for words. In a split second your world gets turn upside down for no good reason. We loss great people in this community. How can we make any sense of this. Sending out prayers to everyone.”
Shelter-in-place orders are in place for Maine’s second-largest city and for nearby Lisbon.
The FBI has added dozens of agents to the scene over the past few hours to assist local law enforcement with the manhunt as well as victims services and counseling. SWAT teams are also on the ground and mobilized.
Robert Card Other News
A furious manhunt is underway after at least 16 people were killed and dozens injured in a mass shooting at a restaurant and a bowling alley in Lewiston, Maine – with schools shuttered and people warned to stay indoors as more than 100 investigators and federal agents search for the killer, officials said
Robert Card, 40, is being sought as a person of interest in the attacks, Lewiston police said around 11 p.m. ET Wednesday, adding he “should be considered armed and dangerous.”
Robert Card is a certified firearms instructor and a member of the US Army Reserves, law enforcement officials in Maine told CNN. He had recently threatened to carry out a shooting at a National Guard facility in Saco, Maine, and reported mental health issues, including hearing voices, the officials said.
Some in the area are waking up Thursday to officers with long guns scouring their neighborhoods.
“Nerves are rattled right now – keeping an eye on the woods,” said Cory, a resident of nearby Lisbon, Maine, whose 10-year-old daughter was inside his home. “That actually made me feel better. Seeing the cops coming around here, that makes me feel a million times better.
“In the situation like this,” he told CNN, “I wish I had a firearm.”
Anyone who sees Robert Card should not approach him “or make contact with him in any way,” Maine’s Department of Public Safety Commissioner Mike Sauschuck said late Wednesday.
At least 16 people are dead, law enforcement officials told CNN, in what appears to be the deadliest mass shooting of 2023 in the United States, adding to a grim docket of 565 such incidents reported this year across the country, with four or more shot excluding the shooter, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
Lewiston City Councilor Robert McCarthy has backed off his assertion to CNN on air Wednesday night of a “confirmed” death toll of 22, now calling it “unconfirmed.” Law enforcement has not addressed the death toll on the record.
“It’s so surreal,” McCarthy said. “You just see it on the news and you say, ‘That’s never gonna happen here,’ and then it happens here, and it just blows your mind.”
Dozens more were injured, though it wasn’t immediately clear how many were hurt due to gunfire, the law enforcement sources told CNN.
By Thursday morning, the entire Lisbon Police Departure had been called in to hunt for the shooter and make sure businesses are closed, Chief Ryan McGee said.
“Right now, this is an active scene in Lisbon,” he told reporters.
Major Northeast grocery chain Hannaford Supermarkets is keeping all its Maine stores closed at least until 10 a.m., the company said. And public schools in Lewiston and Portland – the state’s largest district, with about 6,500 students – are closed, officials have said.
People in nearby Bowdoin, Maine, were advised early Thursday the shelter in place advisory and school closings would include their town, Maine State Police announced: “Please stay inside your homes while more than 100 investigators, both local and federal work to locate Robert Card who is a person of interest in the Lewiston shootings.”
“We want to locate the individual, make sure our community’s kept safe,” McGee said, “so biggest thing I can say is make sure that if the community sees anything, stay inside, don’t approach, call the police department – just like we did here just here. Someone heard something, they called: It’s the right thing to do.”
The rampage began shortly before 7 p.m. and fueled calls for everyone in Lewiston to shelter in place as hundreds of officers searched for the gunman. Lewiston police shared images of a man walking into what appears to be a bowling alley holding a high-powered, assault-style rifle.
The active shooting incidents were reported at Just-in-Time Recreation, a bowling alley on Mollison Way, and about 4 miles away at Schemengees Bar & Grille Restaurant on Lincoln Street, Lewiston Police said. Authorities initially identified the bowling alley by its prior name, Sparetime Recreation.
People ran away from Just-in-Time Recreation as police cruisers responded to the scene, video obtained by CNN shows. A person on a stretcher was loaded into an ambulance, another video from outside the bowling alley shows.
Central Maine Medical Center was “reacting to a mass casualty, mass shooter event,” and coordinating with area hospitals to take in patients, it said.
“There are multiple scenes in the city to include multiple hospitals, multiple follow ups, a lot of witnesses we’re speaking with and a lot of leads,” Sauschuck said. “The general public has been very cooperative, and very forthcoming with information.”
A “vehicle of interest” was found Wednesday night 8 miles from Lewiston in the town of Lisbon, prompting shelter-in-place-orders for that area as well, Sauschuck said.
Lewiston police earlier had shared an image of a small, white SUV with a front bumper that was believed to be painted black. Maine State Police confirmed to CNN the image is of the person of interest’s car.
President Joe Biden has spoken by phone with Maine lawmakers and “offered full federal support in the wake of this horrific attack,” the White House said in a statement.
Lewiston Mayor Carl Sheline is “heartbroken for our city and our people,” he said. “Lewiston is known for our strength and grit and we will need both in the days to come.”
“Both of these locations last night are family locations,” Lewiston Auburn Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce President Shanna Cox said Thursday as the community awaited work on the slain and injured. “It was family league activity at the bowling alley. The likeliness of this having direct impact for so many here is so real.”
https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/26/us/lewiston-maine-shootings-thursday
Robert Card Suicide
The gunman in the mass shootings that killed 18 people in Lewiston, Maine, 40-year-old Robert Card, has been found dead, the Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Office confirmed Friday.
The body of the gunman was found by law enforcement near a recycling plant in the Lisbon area, multiple law enforcement sources confirmed to CBS News. Robert Card died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Mike Sauschuck, commissioner of the Maine Department of Public Safety, said in a news conference Friday night.
Sauchuck said the body was located at about 7:45 p.m. local time near the Androscoggin River in Lisbon, a town about 8 miles southwest of Lewiston. Robert Card’s vehicle, a white Subaru Outback, had earlier been found abandoned by a boat launch on the river.
Maine Gov. Janet Mills told reporters that she called President Biden to inform him of Card being found dead.
“Like many people, I’m breathing a sigh of relief that Robert Card is no longer a threat to anyone,” Mills said.
In his own statement late Friday night, President Biden called it “a tragic two days – not just for Lewiston, Maine, but for our entire country.”
“Americans should not have to live like this,” Mr. Biden said. “I once again call on Republicans in Congress to fulfill their obligation to keep the American people safe. Until that day comes, I will continue to do everything in my power to end this gun violence epidemic. The Lewiston community – and all Americans – deserve nothing less.”
Hundreds of state and local police and federal agents had been involved in the manhunt since the shootings Wednesday night.
For several hours Thursday night, heavily armed police had surrounded a house in Bowdoin, a small town where the gunman was from, about 35 minutes from Lewiston, but they completed their search there without finding him.
On Friday, police announced divers were conducting underwater searches near the location where his vehicle was found abandoned.
Authorities had recovered a weapon from the gunman’s abandoned vehicle, law enforcement sources told CBS News’ Pat Milton and Robert Legare earlier Friday. The firearm was legally purchased, a law enforcement source confirmed. It wasn’t clear if the recovered weapon was used in the shooting.
CBS News had also learned that investigators had located the gunman’s cellphone and were trying to crack it and pore over his online activity, including text messages and emails, hoping to find clues as to his motive in the shootings.
The deadly rampage began a little before 7 p.m. Wednesday night when police received a 911 call about a shooting at Sparetime Recreation, a bowling alley in Lewiston. Police later said six men and one woman there died of apparent gunshot wounds.
Just over 10 minutes later, at 7:08 p.m., police were called to the scene of another shooting a few miles away, at Schemengees Bar and Grille. Eight people there were killed, police said. Three other people died at area hospitals.
Police said the gunman fled in the aftermath of the shootings and they warned that he “should be considered armed and dangerous.”
Card, a member of the U.S. Army Reserve, had recently reported experiencing mental health issues, including hearing voices, and threatened to shoot up a military base in Saco, a law enforcement bulletin seen by CBS News said. In July, he started “behaving erratically,” a New York Army National Guard spokesperson told CBS News, and he was committed to a mental health facility for two weeks.
Several communities in the area spent the days since the shooting under shelter-in-place warnings, with schools canceled and residents urged to stay indoors. The shelter-in-place orders were lifted earlier Friday.
“For me it was incomprehensible that this can happen in Lewiston, Maine,” Mayor Carl Sheline told CBS News Boston.
“Our city is facing this incredible loss and I am completely broken for our city, and my heart really goes out to the victims and their families right now,” Sheline said.
Investigators were looking into whether the gunman may have been targeting a specific individual, who is believed to be a current or former girlfriend, two U.S. officials and a former high-ranking official told CBS News. It wasn’t clear if she was at either of the two locations that were attacked.
The victims of the mass shooting ranged in age from 14 to 76, the medical examiner said. They included a bar manager who tried to stop the gunman; a bowling instructor who was teaching kids; a beloved father; a 14-year-old and his dad; and several people taking part in a cornhole tournament for deaf athletes.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement that “although we are grateful that the suspect in this case no longer poses a threat, we know that nothing can bring back the lives he stole or undo the terror he inflicted.”
Sen. Susan Collins of Maine issued a statement thanking “the brave first responders who worked night and day to find this killer.”
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/robert-card-found-dead-maine-mass-shooting-suspect-lewiston/
