Fear grips Maine town as shooting suspect remains on the loose

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - PORTLAND, Maine — As communities in Maine grieve 18 people killed in a shooting at a bowling alley and restaurant two days ago, officials still are imploring thousands of residents to shelter in place Friday while a massive search for a suspect continues.

Authorities consider the suspect, Robert Card, armed and dangerous, and schools, businesses and other facilities have closed over safety concerns while hundreds of law enforcement officers swarm parts of southern Maine in Card’s pursuit.

The horror began around 7 p.m. Wednesday in the city of Lewiston, where authorities say Card opened fire at Just-in-Time Recreation and then later at Schemengees Bar & Grille. In addition to the 18 people killed, 13 others were injured, Maine Gov. Janet Mills said Thursday.

The shooting and subsequent manhunt spurred shelter-in-place orders for Androscoggin and northern Sagadahoc counties, which encompass Lewiston and the nearby Auburn and Lisbon communities.

“Nerves are rattled right now – (I’m) keeping an eye on the woods,” said Cory, a Lisbon resident whose 10-year-old daughter was inside his home. “Seeing the cops coming around here, that makes me feel a million times better.”

Wednesday night’s massacre appears to be the deadliest mass shooting in the United States this year. It is also the worst since a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers at a school in Uvalde, Texas, last year. Overall, at least 566 mass shootings have happened this year across the country, with four or more shot excluding the shooter, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

Card, 40, faces an arrest warrant in eight counts of murder, police said. Authorities on Thursday at least twice converged on Card’s last known address, a home in Bowdoin, Maine, roughly 15 miles east of Lewiston.

Thursday evening, investigators believed they detected something inside or near the home, spurring a flurry of activity, a law enforcement official said. A CNN crew there heard an officer say “come out with your hands up.” But that episode appeared to end uneventfully, with authorities leaving the scene two hours later and Maine State Police saying they were done there for the night.

Earlier Thursday, investigators executed a search warrant at the residence, looking for computers, notes, weapons and any evidence that might indicate a plan for the shootings, law enforcement sources told CNN.

In the suspect’s car – found abandoned some 8 miles from Lewiston in Lisbon, authorities said – investigators found a gun, a law enforcement official told CNN on Thursday. It has not been determined if the firearm was used in the shooting, the source said.

Authorities are expected to return to Bowdoin to continue investigating Friday, Maine Department of Public Safety spokesperson Shannon Moss said.

The search for Card could be complicated by his background in combat training. Card is a certified firearms instructor and a member of the US Army Reserve, law enforcement officials in Maine told CNN.

Katherine Schweit, a former FBI senior official, said Thursday night that Card has an advantage.

“He’s in his own backyard, and we’re coming into his own backyard to try to find him in a game of hide and seek. He knows what he’s looking for and where he’s going to go,” Schweit told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Thursday. “He has a plan, and law enforcement has to follow those trails wherever they can find them until he makes a decision to stop. So, if he keeps going, that’s just what we’re facing.”

The names of some victims who were killed Wednesday night have been released.

Tricia Asselin was a part time employee at the bowling alley, but she was there Wednesnight bowling recreationally when the shots rang out, according to her brother DJ Johnson.

“What I’m told is that when it all started happening, she ran up to the counter and started to call 911, and that’s when she was shot,” Johnson told CNN on Thursday. “That was just her. She wasn’t going to run. She was going to try and help.”

Asselin, 53, had a son who meant the world to her, Johnson said.

“Her son was her entire life. From the day he was born to yesterday. She did everything for him ... he was her world,” Johnson said.

Asselin’s sister, Bobbi Nichols, also was at the bowling alley when the shooting happened, but she was able to flee the rampage, Johnson said. Tommy Conrad, a manager at the bowling alley, was killed Wednesday, his family confirmed to CNN affiliate WMTW. Conrad, 34, left behind a 9-year-old daughter.

Bryan MacFarlane was playing in a cornhole tournament at the restaurant when he was killed Wednesday, his sister Keri Brooks told CNN. MacFarlan, part of the local deaf community, typically went to Schemengees on Wednesdays, when other deaf people gather to play the game, Brooks said. He leaves behind his mother and his sister.

“I grew up in Maine and the deaf community is a tight-knit community,” Brooks said. “Not only was my brother slain, but my friends were too,” she said of the other victims she has learned about.

MacFarlane, 40, was one of the first deaf people in Vermont to get his commercial trucking driver’s license, Brooks said.

Peyton Brewer-Ross also was at that cornhole tournament when he was fatally shot, according to his brother Ralph Brewer. He enjoyed playing the game and spending time with friends at the restaurant.

Brewer-Ross was a father of two children and “loved being a dad more than anything else,” his brother said, adding he had just celebrated his daughter’s second birthday a couple of weeks ago.

“She woke up telling her mom, Rachel (Sloat), ‘Where’s daddy, where’s daddy?’” Brewer said. “At 2 years old, she isn’t going to remember any of this, but in the same breath, she isn’t going to have her dad be there the rest of her life.”

The first 911 calls reporting a shooting came at 6:56 p.m. Wednesday from the bowling alley. Then about 12 minutes later, multiple 911 calls reported a shooting at the restaurant, roughly 4 miles away.

As police arrived on scene, people were fleeing the bowling alley, video obtained by CNN shows. Another video showed a person on a stretcher taken to an ambulance.

Nichols told CNN she and her sister were bowling in separate lanes when she heard a “bang” but didn’t know what was happening until she heard a second shot. Then she lost sight of her sister when everyone began frantically running away.

“I couldn’t see her, and everybody was running. I got caught in people trampling and running out,” Nichols told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Thursday.

Nichols said she ran as far as she could before finally reaching a fence and some trees, behind which she and others hid as they wondered what was going on. Two hours later, she later learned Asselin was killed trying to call 911.

“When she called 911 to save everybody, she lost her life because of it. She was a great person,” Nichols said. “She was a hero.”

Of the 18 people killed, seven – one woman and six men – were found at the bowling alley, Maine State Police Col. William G. Ross said Thursday. Eight – all men, one of whom was found outside – were killed at Schemengees. Three other victims died after being taken to local hospitals.

Card is a petroleum supply specialist in the Army Reserve and first enlisted in 2002, according to records provided by the Army on Thursday.

And while Card is a certified firearms instructor, law enforcement officials told CNN, his time in the Army did not include training as a firearms instructor “nor did he serve in that capacity for the Army,” spokesperson Bryce Dubee said in a statement to CNN.

Still, Card had extensive training, including land navigation, making him “very comfortable in the woods,” said Clifford Steeves, who told CNN he knew Card when they both served in the Army Reserve.

Steeves met Card in the early 2000s when they served together and knew him until about a decade ago, he said. Steeves didn’t witness any concerning behavior from Card, whom he described as an “outdoors type of guy.” He said Card is a skilled marksman who was one of the best shooters in his unit.

“He was a very nice guy – very quiet. He never overused his authority or was mean or rude to other soldiers,” Steeves said. “It’s really upsetting.”

Over the summer, Card was at the Camp Smith training facility in upstate New York, when he started making statements about hearing voices and having thoughts about wanting to hurt fellow soldiers, law enforcement sources told CNN’s John Miller. He received a command referral to a military hospital and spent a few weeks under evaluation, the sources said.

Katie O’Neill, Card’s sister-in-law, told CNN he didn’t have a long history with mental health challenges.

“This is something that was an acute episode. This is not who he is,” O’Neill said. “He is not someone who has had mental health issues for his lifetime or anything like that.” — CNN