Suspect Wanted In Deadly Maine Shootings Is Found Dead
A man wanted in the fatal shooting of 18 people at a bowling alley and a restaurant in Maine was found dead Friday, ending a frantic statewide search.
Robert Card, 40, of Bowdoin, Maine, was wanted on eight counts of murder following two separate shootings Wednesday evening in Lewiston, state police said. Thirteen people were injured in the shootings, according to authorities.
Card’s body was found with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound at 7:45 p.m. local time near the Androscoggin River in Lisbon Falls after an extensive 48-hour manhunt, Maine Department of Public Safety Commissioner Mike Sauschuck said at a news conference late Friday at Lewiston City Hall. Lisbon Falls is about 10 miles southeast of where the shootings took place.
Maine State Police officers found the body in the back of a trailer in an overflow parking lot at the far end of property owned by the Maine Recycling Corp. Card had once worked there, according to The New York Times.
Families of the victims and the suspected gunman were among the first to be informed when Card’s body was found.
An autopsy aims to determine approximately when he died.
Sauschuck gave some details on a note reportedly left by Card, saying it was addressed to a loved one and contained his phone passcode and banking information that authorities were working to analyze.
He also confirmed that Card had left a long gun in the white SUV he abandoned on the night of the killings. Two other firearms were found near his body.
Only eight of the victims had been identified at the time that an arrest warrant was issued for Card, resulting in the eight counts of murder, state police said Thursday morning. At a news conference Friday, the Maine Department of Public Safety released the names, ages and photos of all 18 people killed on Wednesday night.
This poster provided by the Maine Department of Public Safety shows victims of the Maine shootings. According to Maine State Police, seven people died Wednesday night at Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley. Six were male and one was female. Eight more people, all male, died at Schemengees Bar and Grille. Three others died after being taken to hospitals.
The shootings took place around 7 p.m. and placed multiple nearby cities under shelter-in-place advisories as authorities warned that Card might have been armed and dangerous.
Schools across the region, including in the state’s most populous city of Portland, 30 miles south of Lewiston, were canceled on Thursday and Friday, and businesses also announced they were shutting down amid the manhunt.
Shruti Rajkumar and Sara Boboltz contributed to reporting.
A woman hugs a law enforcement official outside the site of a mass shooting at Schemengees Bar and Grille in Lewiston, Maine.
