Police search for 'armed, dangerous' man after Maine shooting leaves 18 dead: Live updates

LEWISTON, Maine – Hundreds of law enforcement agents were urgently scouring communities around Lewiston, Maine, on Thursday for a person of interest in connection with two deadly shootings at a bowling alley and bar as terrified residents huddled in their homes.

Eighteen people were killed and 13 were injured in the Wednesday night rampage, Maine Gov. Janet Mills said at a press conference Thursday morning.

School districts canceled classes and authorities warned residents in and around Lewiston to stay inside and lock their doors as investigators launched a massive search for Robert Card, 40, who police identified as a person of interest. Card was considered "armed and dangerous," police said. T

Just before 7 p.m. Wednesday, Lewiston police said that they were dealing with an active shooter incident at Schemengees Bar and Grille and Sparetime Recreation, a bowling alley, in Lewiston, a city of about 38,400 residents about 35 miles north of Portland and about 33 miles southwest of Augusta.

Businesses rushed to lock their doors when the gunfire erupted. Witnesses to the shootings were of all ages, including teenagers, said Jason Levesque, the mayor of Auburn, a city less than 2 miles west of Lewiston, at a news conference Wednesday night.

A vehicle believed to have been driven by Card was found overnight in Lisbon, about eight miles away from Lewiston, according to Maine Department of Public Safety Commissioner Mike Sauschuck. The shelter-in-place order has been extended to the town of Bowdoin and Lisbon while Lewiston and its twin city, Auburn, remained under lockdown Thursday.

An evening of joy between parents and children at Sparetime as part of a children’s bowling league quickly turned to horror. Zoey Levesque, 10, who was at the alley with her mother, told WMTW-TV she was grazed by a bullet. “It’s scary,” she said. “I had never thought I’d grow up and get a bullet in my leg. And it’s just like, why? Why do people do this?”

Who is Robert Card?

Shortly before 11 p.m. ET, Lewiston police identified Card as a person of interest, a designation usually made for a person wanted for questioning but who is not considered officially as a suspect. Two surveillance photos accompanied the post and showed a gunman walking into a bowling alley with a rifle raised to his shoulder.

Card, at the time of the shooting, was a sergeant first class in the Army Reserve, according to the Army. He enlisted in December 2002 and has no combat deployments. His military specialty is petroleum supply. Card has several awards, including a Humanitarian Service Medal.

A state police bulletin circulated Wednesday said Card had been trained as a firearms instructor at a U.S. Army Reserve training facility in Maine and had been committed to a mental health facility for two weeks this summer. The bulletin did not provide specific details about his treatment or condition.

'You never think it's going to happen to you'

Billie Jayne Cooke was at a candidates’ forum Wednesday night when gunfire broke out. The owner of the Inn at the Agora in Lewiston is running for City Council when she learned about the shootings a couple of miles away.

Bates College nearby went on lockdown, and a parent-teacher conference night ended suddenly, but Cooke said she didn’t initially realize the gravity of the situation. It wasn’t until she got home to the Inn that she realized the small city where she’s lived for five years would never be the same.

“I said something on Facebook like, ‘It’s a matter of if, not when, and our when just happened now,” Cooke told USA TODAY. “It’s horrible, it’s horrific.”

Lewiston is a small city, and she’s certain some emergency responders would have come upon people they knew who’d been killed or injured.

“You never think it’s going to happen to you, and I thank God it didn’t happen to me,” she said. “But I know people who’ve lived here their whole lives, and they will are waiting to see who died last night because we will all know people who did."

− Phaedra Trethan

Nearby business owner closes shop, talks 'shared concern' of locals

Allen Smith co-owns the Forage Market on 180 Lisbon Street, right in between where the two shootings happened Wednesday night. Staff often visit the bowling alley for outings and Smith told USA TODAY on Thursday that he's hurt by how the shooting has affected the community. 

The Lewiston location is closed Thursday while the cafe's Portland market remains open. But Smith said that could change.

Neither of his shops were open during the nighttime shooting, but he said his family locked their doors, "which we almost never do," and called friends and family. 

The shooting, he said has rocked the tight-knit community where he said people are almost always one-degree of connection away from one another. But through the community's pain, he said people are reaching out and caring for one another. 

"A lot of shared concern, camaraderie and messaging for people being OK and general concerns for people who've lost others."

− Krystal Nurse

Have police given a motive for the shooting?

Authorities have not given a possible motive behind the rampage. State police planned to hold a midmorning news conference Thursday.

Multiple schools districts close, cancel classes

Public schools across Lewiston, Lisbon, Auburn and Portland were closed Thursday as were municipal offices in Lewiston. The class cancellations also extended to Bates College, a private liberal arts school in Lewiston.

"There remains a lot of unknowns at this time. Information moves quickly but not always accurately," Lewiston Public Schools Superintendent Jake Langlais said in a statement on the district's website. "Please continue to shelter in place or get to safety. We will continue to update you with information and next steps as appropriate."

Bates College postpones inaugurations plans for presidency

Thursday and Friday were supposed to be a huge celebration of Bates College's new Black president, a first for the 168-year-old college. New President Gary Jenkins wrote in a message to the college community, where classes have been canceled and a lockdown is still in place, that planned events for the inauguration are on hold. 

"Given the tragedy and the current circumstances, we have decided to postpone all inauguration events until a later date and keep our focus on dealing with the ongoing emergency. We will update you when we have more information," Jenkins wrote on the college website. 

Jenkins is also the Maine college's first gay president. Before taking over at Bates in July, he was the dean of the University of Minnesota Law School. He lives in the president’s house on campus with his husband, Jon. J. Lee, a professor at the University of Maine School of Law.

-Nirvi Shah

President Joe Biden offers 'full federal support' after shooting

President Joe Biden on Thursday ordered the flags at the White House, public buildings, embassies, military posts and naval stations to fly half-staff “as a mark of respect for the victims of the senseless acts of violence,” a White House statement said.

Biden on Wednesday night spoke with Maine Gov. Janet Mills and other public officials about the shootings and “offered full federal support in the wake of this horrific attack.”

Attorney General Merrick Garland is closely monitoring the situation, a spokesperson said Thursday. “The attorney general has been briefed and will continue to closely monitor the situation,” spokesperson Xochitl Hinojosa said. “Federal law enforcement agencies are assisting our state and local law enforcement partners in Lewiston, Maine.”

Police guard hospital in Lewiston as patients being treated

Central Maine Healthcare on Thursday said that it’s closing all physician offices in several communities, including Lewiston, Auburn, Lisbon and Portland, according to an announcement on its website.

Armed police officers on Wednesday and Thursday posted outside Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston. Shortly after the shooting, the hospital announced it was “reacting to a mass casualty, mass shooter event” and was coordinating with area hospitals to take in patients.

The Maine Medical Center, a Level 1 trauma center in Portland, alerted on-call staff and created critical care and operating room capacity in preparation for potential patients from the shooting, the hospital said in a statement.

Researchers suggest Maine shooter coupled ammunition magazines ‘jungle style’

In photos released by Maine authorities of the mass shooter this week a man is shown carrying a rifle with what appears to be a long magazine, or multiple magazines attached.

That image suggests the gunman may have “coupled” or taped two rifle magazines together, nicknamed "jungle style." by G.I.s in Vietnam.

The tactic was popularized after WWII and in Vietnam where soldiers would use tape or bicycle inner-tubes to couple two magazines of ammunition together. Generally, the tactic is used to decrease reload times in tactical situations, said Travis Pike, a firearms expert and NRA firearms instructor. He wrote about the history of coupling for GunMag Warehouse.

“It allows you to have ammo on the gun in the event you don’t have load bearing gear,” Pike told USA TODAY.

Other mass shooters have utilized taped magazines, including Robert Hawkins in the 2007 Westroads Mall shooting. He used a Century WASR-10 with two 30-round magazines taped together. A search warrant tied to Adam Lanza, the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooter also located shotgun magazines taped together.

Despite the low-tech tactic, some gear manufacturers have started adding “coupler" features to their magazines so they can be affixed together.

-Nick Penzenstadler

Maine has lax gun control laws; state has few shootings

Maine is a state with much looser gun laws than peer northeastern states. Gun control advocates quickly pointed out that the state does not have a red flag law to temporarily seize firearms for those in crisis amid other restrictions.

Likewise, the state does not extend any background check requirements beyond what is federally required for unlicensed gun sales.

Giffords, a gun violence prevention group, gave the state an “F” in its annual scorecard this year with no significant new gun legislation passed.

The state does not ban assault-style weapons, large capacity magazines, and has no permitting requirements to carry concealed firearms or open carry a firearm.

The state is known as a “shall-issue” permitless carry state. Anyone 21 and over or 18 and over who is active or honorably discharged from the military, who can legally possess a firearm, can openly or concealed carry.

Maine has relatively few gun deaths. About 178 people died from gun violence in 2022. Reported violent crime rates in Maine in 2022 were the lowest they’ve been since 1979, according to the FBI. 

– Nick Penzenstadler

Shootings follow deadly assault in April

In April, a man fatally shot his parents and a couple in their Bowdoin, Maine, home and barn. He then fled to a nearby interstate, where he fired at passing cars and hit three members of another family. 

Since 2006, more than 560 mass killings have been reported in the United States, according to a database kept by USA TODAY, The Associated Press, and Northeastern University. Over that time span, at least 2,900 people died.

“No American should leave their home and fear becoming the victim of a mass shooting, but tonight, Maine families are grieving from this untold loss of life,” said Kris Brown, president of gun violence prevention organization Brady.

Lewiston's history in New England is peaceful, vibrant, diverse

Lewiston is the second most populous city in Maine and sits between Portland and the state’s capital Augusta. As of 2022, over 38,400 residents live in the city, which emerged as a major center for African immigration into Maine. The area of Lewiston has roots that date to the 17th century, where it later grew from a small town to a thriving mill city.

The city prides itself on being a place of opportunity, according to the Lewiston city website. Lewiston is also home to one the largest French-speaking populations in the United States and is the epicenter for Maine’s Franco-American heritage, according to the state’s office of tourism.

“Vibrant and culturally diverse with a strong sense of community, Lewiston delivers affordable, accessible and abundant opportunity,” the Lewiston city website states.

Contributing: Camille Fine, Tom Vanden Brook