Discovery of body ends hunt for gunman in Maine mass killing

Lewiston, Maine: The man suspected of killing 18 people and injuring 13 others in a shooting at a bar and a bowling alley in Lewiston on Wednesday night was found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound Friday, according to officials briefed on the matter, ending a sweeping search that had forced thousands of residents throughout the region to remain in their homes.

The body of the man, Robert R. Card II, 40, was found at a recycling center where he used to work, the officials said.

The hunt for Card had extended across much of a largely rural state with many potential hiding places, producing an atmosphere of high anxiety as helicopters whirred over farms and forests, police cruisers roared along rural roads and divers plunged into the chilly waters of the Androscoggin River.

Before his body was found, authorities had warned residents to prepare for a prolonged search, with heavily armed officers, armored vehicles, aircraft and dive teams scouring the region. Earlier on Friday, Lewiston’s police chief, David St. Pierre, had called it a “tense and trying time” for the city of nearly 40,000.

Commissioner Michael J. Sauschuck of the Maine Department of Public Safety said Friday that investigators had found “a note at one of these residences” tied to Card but would not discuss its contents. Police, he said, had received more than 500 tips.

The discovery meant that businesses in Lewiston could reopen and people could once again venture outside without fear of running into a man authorities had warned should be considered armed and dangerous. Bates College, in downtown Lewiston, had also been on lockdown.

Wednesday’s rampage began just before 7 pm, authorities said. When the shooting was done, 18 people had been killed and 13 injured in the deadliest mass shooting in the United States since May 2022, when a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.

On Friday evening, before the discovery of the body, officials released the names of the victims who were killed Wednesday night and showed their photographs on a screen at Lewiston City Hall. They ranged in age from 14 to 76.