18 killed, 13 injured in Maine mass shooting; person of interest identified

As many as 20 people are dead in Lewiston after two shootings shocked the city on Wednesday night, the Androscoggin County Sheriff confirmed. 

Sheriff Eric Samson said seven people were found dead at the Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley, previously known as Sparetime Recreation. There was also an unconfirmed number of people killed at Schemengees Bar & Grille, including people who were at the location and others who may have run from the scene and been gunned down. 

State police have identified 40-year-old Robert R. Card II as a person of interest in the shootings, according to Maine Department of Public Safety spokesperson Shannon Moss. He is still at large. 

Police found Card’s car along Route 196 late Wednesday night, Samson confirmed.

The pair of shootings in Maine’s second-largest city on Wednesday night stunned the state, which until now had largely been spared from the random acts of gun violence that have gripped the nation. While the number of official casualties from the night remains to be confirmed, it already ranks as the deadliest mass shooting in Maine’s history and among the deadliest ever in the nation.

The shootings started at 6:56 p.m., Maine Public Safety Commissioner Michael Sauschuck said during a news conference late Wednesday evening. 

He declined to give a more specific number of victims. Confusion regarding the number of casualties and injuries was widespread Wednesday night due to conflicting totals from a variety of sources. 

A shelter in place order was put in place for all of Androscoggin County that evening as the suspect remained at large. 

Card, the person of interest, is a trained firearms instructor for the Army Reserve, according to a Maine police bulletin. He recently reported mental health issues including hearing voices and threatening to “shoot up” a military facility in Saco and was committed to a mental health facility for two weeks in the summer.

Samantha Juray, who co-owns Just-In-Time Bowling with her husband, Justin, said she was at the alley during the attack but that she had been instructed to not say anything about it while the investigation continues.

“It’s just a horrific thing that happened that nobody deserves,” she said.

Lewiston’s Central Maine Medical Center said that staff were “reacting to a mass casualty, mass shooter event” and coordinating with area hospitals to take in patients. 

Staff at Maine Medical Center in Portland were also responding to the shootings, and the hospital confirmed it will receive one patient transport from Central Maine Medical Center. 

Loved ones of victims were seen walking in and out of Central Maine Medical Center during a span of several hours Wednesday night, with law enforcement officers escorting some families to their cars.

One man asked a reporter for a cigarette, saying his son was shot and in the hospital. He declined to share more information. Armed law enforcement officers stood guard to the entrance to the hospital.

A reunification center for anyone searching for their loved ones was established at Auburn Middle School on 38 Falcon Drive. 

About 45 to 50 people had come through the reunification center shortly after midnight on Thursday, according to Auburn Mayor Jason Levesque. They were interviewed by police and then brought to the center.

One woman at the reunification center early Thursday morning said that no one could tell her the location of a family friend who had been at Schemengees at the time of the shooting. 

“We have the right to know as a family if people are alive,” said Maria Wilson, who said that the family friend was playing pool at Schemengees. Hospitals would not confirm or deny whether the family friend was a patient there, citing an ongoing investigation.

“We’re trying to figure out how we’re going to tell his kids. His almost 14-year-old, her birthday is in four days. How are we going to tell her her dad’s not going to be there?” she added. “How does the mother go home to tell the kid we don’t know if he’s alive or dead? We don’t know where he is. We don’t know what’s going on.”

Levesque described the reunification center as a “happier place” in the community at this time. 

“This is a reunification center, where witnesses who saw traumatic events are coming together with their family and loved ones who were worried to death about them. And they’re coming together, so it is happy,” Levesque said. “But on the flipside of the happiness, what you’re seeing is the turmoil and trauma that they’re going through, especially the witnesses.”

He added that the witnesses were kept in a safe, centralized location between the shooting scenes and the reunification center. 

There were people who learned at the reunification center that a loved one did not survive the shootings, Levesque confirmed. He wouldn’t say how many people experienced that and provided no further information. 

“At this point, we’re really going to focus inside of our community. We’re going to heal our community,” Levesque said.

Lewiston resident Robin Payne reported seeing a flurry of police cars, firetrucks and ambulances head toward Schemengees Bar & Grille Restaurant, located less than a quarter-mile from Payne on Lincoln Street, at around 7:10 p.m.

At 7:19 p.m., footage from her doorbell camera showed a police officer outside her house with a long gun, and neighbors reported that he told them to go inside. 

By 8:30 p.m., the ambulances had left the area but cop cars remained. 

The Walmart Distribution Center on Alfred A Plourde Parkway, which was reported as another possible shooting location on Wednesday, was later cleared, Samson said. 

Lewiston Public Schools were holding parent teacher conferences Wednesday night, the Sun Journal reported. Anyone at or near a school was told to get to a safe place as the school went into lockdown, Superintendent Jake Langlais said. 

The school department canceled classes at all schools on Thursday. 

“There remains a lot of unknowns at this time,” the school department said in a statement. “Our prayers go out to those who lost someone tonight. Our prayers go out to all those working to stop further loss of life.”

BDN editor Lindsay Putnam and BDN reporters Billy Kobin, Marie Weidmayer and Sawyer Loftus contributed to this report.

Correction: An earlier version of this article misidentified Robert R. Card II’s age. He is 40.