Lewiston, Maine
Reuters
Police in Maine lifted an order that had kept tens of thousands of people in their homes while hundreds of officers continued their pursuit on Friday of Robert R Card, suspected in the mass shootings that killed 18 people at a bar and a bowling alley in Lewiston this week.
The shelter-in-place order had been imposed shortly after the shootings on Wednesday night.
Members of law enforcement search a river in Lisbon Falls, Maine, US, on 27th October, 2023. PICTURE: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque
Deer hunting would be banned in four towns near the shooting site until further notice, however, though it would be permitted in the rest of the state, Mike Sauschuck, the Maine Department of Public Safety’s commissioner, told a news conference.
Sauschuck also said all 18 victims had been identified, revealing their names and ages, which ranged from 14 to 76.
Even before the announcement about the plan to lift the shelter-in-place order, more people had been defying it. More cars were on the road in Lewiston and neighboring Auburn on Friday as some grocery stores and fast-food stops opened their doors after a near-total shutdown on Thursday.
Some people in the Lewiston area had been anxious at the thought of a lengthy shelter in place, which might keep them out of work.
“Am I going to fall behind on my rent, my bills?” said Toni Martin, a 50-year-old employee at a casino in Oxford, Maine. His business had kept its doors closed since Wednesday night.
On Friday, the search for Card expanded to the waters of the Androscoggin River. Divers were deployed and robots and sonar were being used in the pursuit of the US Army reservist.
Investigators focused on the river as the last known location of Card, whose white SUV was found abandoned at a boat launch. Public records show Card has at least one watercraft registered in his name, a 3.6-metre, 155-horsepower vessel made by jet ski company Sea-Doo.
Card, 40, liked to hunt and fish and was a sergeant at a nearby US Army Reserve base. Law enforcement officials said he had been temporarily committed to a mental health facility over the summer.
Local media reported that sonar and robots were also deployed in the Sabattus River, a smaller tributary that drains into the Androscoggin.
Divers were in the water, WGME television reported on Friday afternoon, with a journalist near the scene. About 40 officers swept the shoreline, the Lewiston Sun Journal reported, citing a Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife spokesperson.
As two boats outfitted with sonar covered the river, a helicopter overhead scanned the water with thermal imaging, the Sun Journal said.
A view of a sign in the aftermath of deadly mass shootings in Lewiston, Maine, US, on 27th October, 2023. PICTURE: Reuters/Shannon Stapleton
A Thursday night search in the neighboring town of Bowdoin, where Card has a home, turned up a note, Sauschuck said. He declined to say who wrote it or what it said.
Lewiston, a former textile hub of 38,000 people, and neighboring communities have been largely shut down since the Wednesday evening attacks as hundreds of officers conducted their search. Colleges and public schools in the area canceled classes for a second day.
“I will ask the community to be as patient as possible with this process,” Lewiston Police Chief David St. Pierre said at a press conference.
Guns are lightly regulated in Maine, where about half of all adults live in a household with a firearm, according to a 2020 study by RAND Corporation.
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Maine does not require a permit to buy or carry a gun, and it does not have so-called “red flag” laws that allow law enforcement in some other states to temporarily disarm people deemed dangerous.
US Representative Jared Golden, a Democrat from Lewiston, told reporters the attacks have reversed his opposition to banning certain kinds of semi-automatic rifles.
“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 hometown,” Golden told a news conference.
His change of heart does not change the equation in Washington, where President Joe Biden’s push to reinstate a ban of such guns has been a non-starter for Republicans who control the House of Representatives and back gun rights
A landmark 2022 US Supreme Court ruling has made it more difficult to pass gun laws. The court found individuals have a constitutional right to carry weapons in public, and that lawmakers can only pass gun regulations that resemble those that existed in the US in the 18th century.
– Additional reporting by NICK PFOSI in Lewiston and Lisbon, Maine, and by RICH MCKAY
