On October 25, 2023, Robert Card, age 40, fatally shot 18 people and injured 13 others during a shooting spree[4][5][6] at two locations in Lewiston, Maine, United States.[7] The first mass shooting was at the Just-in-Time Recreation bowling alley, during a youth league event, and the second occurred minutes later at the Schemengees Bar & Grille Restaurant. After Card fled the scene, an intensive manhunt commenced when the Androscoggin CountySheriff's Office released a photograph of him as the suspect.
On October 27, Card was found dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound in a tractor trailer near a recycling center in Lisbon,[8] where he had recently worked.[9][10]
The first shooting occurred on October 25, 2023, at Just-In-Time Recreation, a Lewiston bowling alley, during a youth league event.[13] The shooter, 40-year-old Robert Card, used a semi-automatic rifle chambered in .308 Winchester[14] and equipped with an extended magazine and optic.[15] Police received the first emergency calls at 6:56p.m. EDT.[16] 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.[17] Seven people were killed at Just-In-Time.[16]
Shortly after, at 7:08, a second shooting was reported at Schemengees Bar & Grille Restaurant, 4 miles (6.4 km) south of the bowling alley.[16][18] Officers arrived at the scene two minutes later.[17] Eight people were killed at this location, seven of them inside the building and the eighth outside. Additionally, three injured victims died later in a hospital.[16][17]
On October 26, the Maine State Police and Governor Janet Mills confirmed the number of victims[30] and announced that an arrest warrant was issued for the suspect, who was charged with eight counts of murder.[31] Police surrounded a house in Bowdoin while executing a search warrant.[32]
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they did not definitively know Card's means of escape.[33] That same day, the shelter-in-place order in Lewiston was rescinded, but hunting restrictions in Bowdoin, Lewiston, Lisbon, and Monmouth were imposed.[34]
On the evening of October 27, Card was found dead near his former place of employment, a recycling center close to the Androscoggin River in Lisbon.[35][36] 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.[17][37] His cause of death was apparently a self-inflicted gunshot wound.[9][38] The hunting restrictions that had been put in place were subsequently removed.[35]
Victims
A total of eighteen people were killed; thirteen others were injured.[39] Seven were killed at Just-In-Time Recreation. Eight were killed at Schemengees Bar & Grille Restaurant. Three died in a hospital.[16][17] Four of those killed in the restaurant were deaf, having been participating in a cornhole tournament for the deaf community.[40][41] Ranging in age from 14 to 76, the dead were all identified on October 27.[42]
Card was formerly a student at Bowdoin Central School and later Mount Ararat High School in nearby Topsham.[55][56] After graduating in 2001, he studied engineering at the University of Maine from 2001 to 2004 but did not complete his education.[57] His only recorded interactions with law enforcement prior to 2023 were a 2007 DUI arrest, to which he pleaded guilty, and two speeding charges in 2001 and 2002.[58][59]
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.[60] In July 2023, service members training alongside Card at West Point reported that he threatened to "shoot up" a military base in Saco, Maine, prompting them to notify law enforcement. 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.[16][61][62]
Army spokesperson Bryce Dubee said Card returned home on August 3, 2023. It was ruled that he could “not have a weapon, handle ammunition or participate in live-fire activity” and was considered “non-deployable.”[63] That same day, a gun shop in Auburn, Maine denied his access to purchase a silencer because of his self-reported recent hospitalization due to a mental health concern.[64]
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".[64]
Aftermath
Following the shootings, a shelter-in-place order was implemented in Lewiston, and schools were placed on lockdown.[65]Auburn issued its own shelter-in-place order and told businesses to lock down as well.[66] 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.[67][68][69] The shelter-in-place advisory was extended to Bowdoin on October 26.[70] Bates College also postponed its presidential inauguration, previously scheduled for October 27, until further notice.[71] 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.[72][73][74]
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.[75]
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. There were also claims that he voted for former U.S. president Barack Obama or was a supporter of Hamas.[76][77]
Reactions
Local and state
Lewiston mayor Carl Sheline said that he was "heartbroken".[78] The mayor of Auburn, Lewiston's twin city, said, "We will get this situation settled."[79] Maine Governor Janet Mills urged residents to follow law enforcement instructions.[80] 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 Languageinterpreter 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.[40]
Federal
U.S. Senator Angus King of Maine wrote on Twitter that he was "deeply sad".[81] Fellow Senator Susan Collins remarked, "This is the darkest day in Maine history in my lifetime."[82]Jared Golden—who represents Lewiston—and Chellie Pingree, both U.S. Representatives from Maine, released statements expressing shock at the events.[83] Golden further announced his support for an assault weapons ban, reversing his previous opposition to gun control measure and asking for "forgiveness" from the community and victims' families for his previous position.[84] On October 25, President Joe Biden made calls to several Maine lawmakers to offer full federal support.[85] 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".[86][87] 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".[88]
^"Maine Mass Shooter Purchased .308-Caliber 'Battle Rifle' Days Before Mental Health Hospitalization: Report". The Messenger. October 27, 2023. Archived from the original on October 28, 2023. Retrieved October 28, 2023. CNN's John Miller, citing law enforcement sources, reports that Card purchased the Ruger SFAR during July in Maine, about 10 days before he had an encounter with New York State Police and his National Guard superiors that led to his hospitalization for mental health reasons.