Robert Card, the suspect behind the deadly mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, has been found dead of what appears to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Card fired at patrons in a restaurant and a bowling alley, slaying 18 people and wounding over a dozen on Wednesday night before fleeing the scene and setting off a massive state-wide manhunt.
“Card is considered armed and dangerous,” the state’s public safety commissioner Mike Sauschuck said following the shooting spree. Maine State Police issued advisories throughout the night and Thursday morning for residents to shelter-in-place. Dozens of public schools, including kindergartens and universities, were shuttered by the state on Thursday, with Card on the run.
His body was discovered on Friday evening near a recycling center he formerly worked at in the town of Lisbon, a 15-minute drive southeast of Lewiston.
“It will take a long, long time to process this pain, but Maine people have grit, resolve and heart and we will come together through this difficult grieving period and hope for brighter, calmer days,” Senator Angus King (I., Maine) said in a statement following the news.
King’s legislative partner, Senator Susan Collins (R., Maine), expressed similar grief. “Tonight, Mainers can breathe a collective sigh of relief thanks to the brave first responders who worked night and day to find this killer.”
“To the families who lost loved ones and to those injured by this attack, I know that no words can diminish the shock, pain, and justifiable anger you feel,” the senator said in a statement. “It is my hope that you will find solace and strength in knowing that you are in the hearts of people throughout Maine and across the nation.”
A police bulletin circulating among law enforcement and obtained by the Associated Press indicated that Card had been trained as a firearms instructor at a U.S. Army Reserve training center in Maine. The bulletin also said that Card had been committed to a mental-health facility for two weeks over the summer. The bulletin did not specify Card’s specific condition but did say that he was “hearing voices and threats to shoot up” the military base.
Police reportedly visited Card’s family, including his sister-in-law, who resides in Bowdoin, a small town in Maine. “I’ve known my brother-in-law since high school and he’s always been a wonderful, loving person,” she wrote in a text message to the Journal. “Please pray for us.”
“This is a dark time in America. We have a lot of problems,” the newly-elected Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) told reporters on Capitol Hill. “We are really, really hopeful and prayerful. Prayer is appropriate in a time like this. That the evil can end. Everyone wants this to end.”
The Biden administration was also been closely monitoring the situation. “The President spoke by phone individually to Maine Governor Janet Mills, Senators Angus King and Susan Collins, and Congressman Jared Golden about the shooting in Lewiston, Maine and offered full federal support in the wake of this horrific attack,” the White House said in an official statement.
It was the deadliest mass shooting in America since a gunman killed over twenty children and teachers at a school in Uvalde, Texas.