(Updates with confirmation of self-inflicted gunshot wound)
LEWISTON, Maine, USA (Reuters) – The suspect in the killing of 18 people and wounding 13 in a shooting in Lewiston, Maine, was found dead on Friday with an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound, ending a search for 48 hours that followed the deadliest act of armed violence in the history of the state.
Card’s body was found in the woods near Lisbon Falls, near where police found his abandoned vehicle shortly after the shootings Wednesday night.
“He’s dead,” Maine Gov. Janet Mills said at a news conference, thanking the hundreds of officers from various agencies involved in the search.
“Like many people, tonight I breathe a sigh of relief knowing that Robert Card is no longer a threat to anyone (…) Now is the time to heal,” Mills said.
Card died of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound, said Mike Sauschuck, commissioner of the Maine Department of Public Safety.
Authorities said the U.S. Army reservist opened fire Wednesday night at a bowling alley and then at a bar minutes later.
The shootings and prolonged chase shook the normally bustling but serene community of Lewiston, a former textile center and Maine’s second-most populous city.
The city lies on the banks of the Adroscoggin River, about 35 miles (56 km) north of the state’s largest city, Portland, and a similar distance southwest of Maine’s capital, Augusta.
Card, an Army Reserve sergeant from the neighboring town of Bowdoin, has been described by authorities as a trained firearms instructor who served as a petroleum supply specialist while on duty at the military reserve base in Saco. , Maine.
Law enforcement officials also said he has a history of mental illness and was committed to a psychiatric facility for two weeks during the summer of 2023, after which he was released.
A few hours after the Wednesday night massacre, police released photos from surveillance cameras at one of the crime scenes showing a bearded man, dressed in a brown hooded sweatshirt and jeans, wearing what It appeared to be a semi-automatic rifle.
Meanwhile, hundreds of agents from various agencies, from local police and sheriff’s deputies to the FBI and the US Coast Guard, joined the search. Canadian authorities, including its border agents, were on alert.
The initial trail of clues led to Lisbon, about 7 miles (11 km) to the southeast, where Maine State Police found a white SUV they believed Card had used to flee parked on a river boat launch. Public records showed that he owned at least one boat made by Sea-Doo, a company known for its personal watercraft.
As part of the search for Card, police searched the waters of the Androscoggin River with divers and sonar on Friday, sending teams of officers door-to-door through the neighborhood looking for additional clues and possible eyewitnesses.
Earlier on Friday, Maine State Police lifted an order that had kept tens of thousands of people in their homes as the manhunt continued.
(Reporting by Gabriella Borter in Lewiston; additional reporting by Nick Pfosi in Lewiston and Lisbon, Maine, and Rich McKay; Writing by Daniel Trotta and Jonathan Allen; Editing in Spanish by Ricardo Figueroa)
Source: Ambito
