LEWISTON, Maine — Singer James Taylor performed an acoustic version of the national anthem ahead of a rivalry football game that kicked off another tentative step in Lewiston’s recovery from Maine’s worst mass shooting.
Known as the Battle of the Bridge, the game features cross-river rivals Lewiston High School and Edward Little High School of Auburn. Last Friday’s game between the Blue Devils and the Red Eddies was postponed after the communities were locked down while police searched for 40-year-old Robert R. Card II of Bowdoin.
He was found dead Friday, days after shooting and killing 18 people and injuring 13 others at a bowling alley and a bar in Lewiston. Residents in both Lewiston and Auburn lost family and friends in the Oct. 25 shooting.
“Words cannot express the tremendous grief our communities are experiencing over the tragedy of this past week,” a speaker said over the public address system. “As a community we are stunned. We mourn the tragic loss of life, lives and injuries, and our deepest sympathies go out to the victims, their families and friends.”
Then the person read out the names of the 18 who were killed, saying, “Let us not forget these names.”
Fans and students decked out in school colors began arriving about two hours before kickoff to snag good seats. Blue and white balloons hung from a fence near the field, and a banner displayed the interlocked first letters of Lewiston and Auburn and the phrase, “We stand together.”
Among the first to arrive was Mark Barrett, a 58-year-old car salesman from Lewiston who knew two people who were injured in the shooting.
“It’s like they say, ‘Lewiston strong.’ We are all here together as one,” Barrett said. “This is probably the perfect setting, because it’s against your crosstown rival. It’s going to be a great game. It’s going to be a game of unity.”
Story by Michael Casey.