The man, aged 40, was quickly identified by the police. At least 18 people were shot at a bowling alley and restaurant in Lewiston, Maine.
End of the run. The alleged perpetrator of one of the worst killings in recent years in the United States, which left at least 18 dead, was found dead this Friday, October 27 in the evening after having probably committed suicide with a firearm.
“He is dead (…) Maine State Police have located the body,” Maine Governor Janet Mills said during a press conference late Friday evening, marking the end of two days of anxiety and confinement for the residents of the small town of Lewiston.
Probable suicide
Robert Card, 40, an Army reservist, appears to have committed suicide with a gun, according to Maine Public Safety Officer Michael Sauschuck. Authorities said they were unable to say when the suspect ended his life.
The body of Robert Card was found at 7:45 p.m. (11:45 p.m. GMT) near a river in Lisbon Falls, about twenty minutes from the town of Lewiston where the killing took place. His car was found nearby.
On Wednesday October 25, armed with a semi-automatic rifle, this man opened fire in a bowling alley in Lewinston, then around ten minutes later, in a bar-restaurant in this town of 36,000 inhabitants, killing 18 people and causing 13 injured. “Our hospitals are not equipped to handle this type of shooting,” lamented Robert McCarthy, local elected official, at CNN.
Seven people lost their lives in the bowling alley, eight in the bar-restaurant and three injured people died in hospital.
At the end of the afternoon and while the suspect had still not been located, the local authorities announced the lifting of the confinement of the area, while warning that the situation remained “dangerous”, and calling on residents to remain “vigilant”.
The deadliest attack since Uvalde
Wednesday’s killing is the worst in the United States since that of the Uvalde school in Texas, where a shooter killed 19 children and two teachers in May 2022.
Denouncing a “tragic and senseless” act, President Joe Biden asked Congress on Thursday, October 26 to adopt “a ban on assault weapons” – yet another call of its kind by the Democrat, despite a majority not found for decades for a such change in legislation.
“Americans should not have to live like this,” he stressed Friday evening in a press release, referring to “two dramatic days.”
Excluding suicides, more than 15,000 people have died in gun violence since the start of the year in the country, and Wednesday’s attack is the deadliest recorded over the period, according to the Gun Violence Archive association ( GVA).