2023-10-28 04:39:25
The Maine State Police (United States) confirmed this Friday the discovery of the body of the main suspect in the two shootings that claimed the lives of 18 people in the city of Lewiston on Wednesday. Robert Card was found dead around 7:45 p.m. local time (00:45 GMT) with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head and his body was found in a place near the river where he had abandoned his car, two days following having carried out two shootings. in a bowling alley and a restaurant.
WATCH THE LIVE STREAM HERE:
This was confirmed by Mike Sauschuck, commissioner of the Maine Department of Public Safety, in a press conference in which the Democratic governor, Janet Mills, participated, who confirmed that she has already given the news to President Joe Biden.
LOOK: Shooting in Maine: at least 22 dead and dozens injured following armed attack with the suspect on the run
Sauschuck declined to report on many details questioned by the press, including the location of the discovery and whether it had been examined before today. “I won’t give you an exact address. “It was near the Androscoggin River, in Lisbon Falls,” he said.
Police officers approach a home in Monmouth, Maine, on Oct. 27, 2023, searching for the perpetrator of a mass shooting. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS / AFP).
The New York Times newspaper claims that the body was found in a recycling plant where he had worked, two days following having carried out two shootings at a bowling alley and a restaurant.
LOOK: What is known regarding Robert Card, the firearms instructor soldier who killed 18 people in Maine
The commissioner explained that before making the news public, the families of the 18 deceased and also that of the suspect were notified, who “lost a loved one in this scenario,” he stated.
After the press conference ended, an alert sounded on the mobile phones of the residents of the area: “The search for Mr. Card is over. The sheltering is over. He can be hunted once more.”
The press conference began with a few words from Democratic Governor Janet Mills, who announced the long-awaited news for the first time: “Robert Card is dead.”
The suspect has been identified as Robert Card. (Photo by Lewiston Maine Police Department / AFP).
“Like many people, tonight I breathe a sigh of relief knowing that Robert Card is no longer a threat to anyone. I know there are many people who share that sentiment, but I also know that his death may not bring comfort to many. But now is the time to heal,” he stated.
This discovery puts an end to two days of tension in Lewiston and neighboring cities, where a large part of the citizens have remained sheltered at home for safety.
And an intense search by air, land and water also ends, in which hundreds of local and state police officers, as well as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), have participated.
Nothing was known regarding the suspect since authorities published his photograph on social media on Wednesday – in which he appeared carrying an assault rifle – and asked the public to share any information regarding his possible whereregardings with the police.
His car had been found the night of the event on a pier in Lisbon, a town regarding 12 kilometers from Lewiston, where the massacre took place. That is why this Friday’s search focused on the river next to which the vehicle was found, with divers, underwater robots and sonars.
Card was a soldier in the reserves, 40 years old, and had spent two weeks in a psychiatric hospital. Until now he was considered armed and dangerous.
This Friday, the Maine State Police, which is leading the investigation, published the names of the 18 fatal victims of the shootings, including a teenager and his father and four deaf people.
He also announced that this Saturday the order to stay at home for safety in force since Wednesday ends.
The event has shocked Lewiston, a city of regarding 38,000 inhabitants, the second most populated in the state of Maine, and is the deadliest shooting so far this year in the United States.
Previous information
manhunt
Hundreds of police officers in military-style camouflage attire, as well as FBI agents, crowd the search area in “an all- once morest-one approach,” according to Lewiston Police Chief David St. Pierre.
Law enforcement outside the home of suspect Robert Card’s father and brother in Bowdoin, Maine, on Oct. 26, 2023, following a mass shooting in Lewiston. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS / AFP).
“We continue to work tirelessly to bring this situation to a conclusion,” St. Pierre told reporters, with the goal of “locating and holding this person accountable.”
A heavily armed law enforcement officer is seen near the home of mass shooting suspect Robert Card in Bowdoin, Maine. (EFE/EPA/CJ GUNTHER).
According to the head of Maine’s public safety, Mike Sauschuck, during the search the police found an abandoned white van regarding ten kilometers from Lewiston.
Biden contacted the governor of Maine to offer federal support and ordered the national flag to be placed at half-staff on all state buildings.
“Our nation is grieving once more,” the president lamented in a statement, once once more calling on Congress to “ban assault weapons.”
A police car passes a blocking sign on the road leading to the Schemengees bar, where a man reportedly opened fire, killing and wounding numerous people. (EFE/EPA/CJ GUNTHER).
Mass shootings daily
Authorities and rescuers said they arrived at the Sparetime Recreation bowling alley at 7:15 p.m. local time on Wednesday and then received reports of another shooting in the area, at the Schemengees Bar Bar & Grille restaurant.
Several media also mentioned a shooting in a logistics center of a Wallmart supermarket, but the authorities have not confirmed it.
“I threw myself on top of my daughter, and my mother on top of me,” Riley Dumont said, explaining how her father, a retired police officer, overturned a table to protect children from the shooting.
This new massacre, one of the deadliest since the one in Las Vegas in 2017, is added to the long list of shootings that regularly mourn the United States, where weapons are plentiful and easy to acquire.
In 2023, the country will record at least 565 mass shootings, according to the non-governmental organization Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as one in which at least four or more people are injured or killed.
Excluding suicides, more than 15,000 people have died from gun violence since the beginning of the year in the country, and Wednesday’s attack is the deadliest recorded during the period, according to the same NGO.
A police officer stands guard outside Central Maine Medical Center following a man opened fire, killing and wounding numerous people in Lewiston. (EFE/EPA/CJ GUNTHER).
“Crazy”
“We have never experienced anything like this,” Cynthia Hunter, who has lived in Lewiston since 2012, told local television.
“I am horrified by what happened in Lewiston tonight,” Maine Rep. Jared Golden said in a statement.
Stephen King, a well-known writer who has set several of his novels in Maine, denounced this Thursday the absence of regulations on firearms.
“It’s crazy in the name of freedom,” he said on X, formerly Twitter, where he also indicated that he lives “less than 80 km” from Lewiston.
Efforts to tighten gun control have faced opposition for years from Republicans, staunch defenders of the constitutional right to bear arms.
The political paralysis remains despite widespread outrage over the recurring shootings.
1698469526
#Robert #Card #suspect #shooting #Lewiston #Maine #dead #LIVE #TODAY #Friday #October #Latest #news #attacks #left #dead #news #United #States #USA #Shooting #WORLD
