2023-10-27 03:18:37
The city of Lewiston and its surrounding areas, in the state of Maine, are empty. After the mass shooting that left at least 18 people dead on Wednesday night, no one is leaving their homes. All shops, schools and official offices are closed.
The suspect of being the author of the massacre, Robert Card, a 40-year-old reserve soldier who spent two weeks in a psychiatric hospital, is a fugitive. The police are looking for him everywhere.
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“We are locked in and in shock,” Argentine journalist Constanza Preti, who lives with her American husband and three young children in Falmouth, just 30 minutes from the epicenter of the massacre, told TN.
What was the mass shooting like in which 18 people died in Maine?
The shooting occurred Wednesday night at a Lewiston restaurant and bowling alley. The suspect shot at random and killed 18 people and injured 13 others. The man fled following the attack and is being intensively sought by the police.
“I had been with my family very close there on Saturday, celebrating the birthday of a friend’s daughter. Last night we were having dinner outside when we heard people at the back table talking regarding the shooting and we ran home,” Petri said.
Armed security officers patrol outside the Maine Medical Center during a shooting in Lewiston, Maine, on Oct. 25, 2023. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)By: AP
Preti has lived in the United States since 2010. First in New York and for three years in Maine. Her children are 5 years old and the twins are 3.
“When we got home we saw the news. At 4 in the morning we received a message from the school to let us know that the school was closed until further notice. The suspect is still loose out there,” he said.
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Both she and her husband work from home. There is no one outside. “They canceled my medical appointment. They closed public buildings, supermarkets and even a store that opens 24 hours a day. Everyone is shocked. Our plan is not to go out at all,” she stated.
Preti said that her husband only went out to the sidewalk for a moment to take out the trash. “No one. Not even a car passes by,” she noted.
The kids don’t know what is happening and are happy to stay home with their parents. “Here they recommend not saying anything regarding these cases to children under 8 years old,” he said.
The suspect was identified as Robert Card, 40 years old. (Photo: Archyde.com/Facebook).
Now, fear took over everyone. “I was born in Argentina and raised in Colombia. I lived through the times of Pablo Escobar and saw violent situations when I was my children’s age. I told my husband that he didn’t want to repeat history. I told him my limit would be when there was a shooting near us. Now I don’t know what to do,” he commented.
Preti gets excited. “The first reaction is to put everything in a suitcase and leave. This does not happen in other countries. There are problems everywhere, but here there have been shootings in schools, shopping malls, churches, restaurants… No place is exempt. It is difficult to live in that paranoia,” she said.
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The fear makes him remember the feeling he experienced in Buenos Aires following the Cromañon tragedy, when 194 young people died on December 30, 2004 in the fire that occurred during a rock concert by the group Callejeros in that establishment in the Once neighborhood.
“So when I entered any bowling alley I looked at the emergency exits. Here it is the same, but everywhere: when you enter a place, whatever it may be, you find where you can hide and where to run away,” he concluded.
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