The hunt continues to find the suspect in the shooting which left eighteen dead and thirteen injured in the northeast of the United States. The police thus intervened without success, Thursday October 26 in the evening, in the house of the suspect’s family, the day after the 36e and deadliest mass shooting in the country in 2023.
“Come out please”, called the police into the night on a megaphone in the direction of a house in Bowdoin, about twenty kilometers from Lewiston. It is in this medium-sized town in Maine, on the American east coast, that a shooter caused death Wednesday evening in a bowling alley and a bar-restaurant.
The alleged perpetrator was identified by police as Robert Card, 40. “Armed and dangerous” according to authorities, he is an army reservist. A photo released by police shows a man dressed in a brown top entering the bowling alley, a semi-automatic rifle on his shoulder.
Above one of the homes targeted by the police on Thursday evening, drones and helicopters are flying. Armored vehicles were also called in as reinforcements. “We would like to speak to you”, shouts the police through the megaphone, without us knowing to whom, precisely, these remarks are addressed. The police left without making any statements to journalists – there were many on site – and the authorities seemed to dampen hopes that the identified suspect had been located.
“We do not know at this time if Robert Card is in one of the houses that are being searched by the police,” had written the Maine State Police on X (formerly Twitter), evoking “several search warrants” as part of the investigation.
“He knows every corner to hide behind”
Richard Goddard, who lives down the road from the Bowdoin search, said he knew the Card family and the suspect was familiar with the area. “It’s his favorite terrain. He grew up here. He knows every corner to hide behind, every thicket,” he told the Associated Press.
For more than twenty-four hours, the authorities have been engaged in a huge manhunt in the middle of a rural and wooded area. Residents were ordered to confine themselves to their homes, turning Lewiston into a ghost town. Schools closed their doors, businesses too, and the high school parking lot was taken over by police officers in fatigues, armed to the teeth.
The suspect’s car was discovered near a boat launch near the Androscoggin River, which connects to the Kennebec River, and his 15-foot boat is still missing, Ryan Smith said. officer in charge of the Town of Boothbay Coast Guard Station. After hours of searching along the Kennebec River, authorities found nothing conclusive, he said, specifying that authorities had no specific information indicating that the suspect may have escaped aboard his boat.
The Canada Border Services Agency has issued an alert to its agents stationed along the Canada-US border, warning them to be on the lookout.
Three injured still in critical condition
“It’s a dark day for Maine”, declared Janet Mills, the governor of the State of Maine, on Thursday, announcing the very heavy toll. Seven people – one woman and six men – lost their lives at the bowling alley, eight in a restaurant a dozen minutes away, and three in the hospital. Eight injured people, including three in critical condition, were hospitalized Thursday afternoon, officials said.
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The authorities have not communicated the identities of the victims, but among the lives lost at the restaurant is that of Joseph Walker, 57, who worked in the establishment, his father told several American media. He said police told the family that his son tried to stop the killer with a kitchen knife before being killed.
Joe Biden deplored an act Thursday morning “tragic and senseless” and ordered flags on federal buildings to be flown at half-mast. “Once again, our nation is in mourning”lamented the American president, calling on Congress to adopt “a ban on assault weapons” – yet another call of its kind by the Democrat despite a majority not found for decades for such a change in legislation. During a press conference Thursday evening, a Democratic elected official from the district that includes Lewiston announced he had changed his mind in light of this event and now supports such a measure.
Wednesday’s killing is the worst in the United States since that of the school in Uvalde, Texas, where a shooter killed nineteen children and two teachers in May 2022.
The country is paying a very heavy price for the spread of firearms on their territory and the ease with which Americans have access to them. The United States has more individual weapons than people. 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).
Maine is one of the states with the lowest homicide rate per capita, and Wednesday’s eighteen deaths represent, according to the Everytown association, more than the annual average of firearm homicides in the state. ‘State.