A gigantic manhunt. A suspect untraceable. Residents on edge. A bereaved and confined city. More than 24 hours after the tragedy that struck Lewiston, Maine, the hunt that mobilized police and FBI agents in a region covered in forests and rivers had yielded nothing on Thursday evening.
Robert Card, a 40-year-old army reservist wanted for a double shooting that left 18 dead and 13 injured at a bowling alley and a bar the day before, managed to disappear into thin air. However, it cannot be ruled out that he is dead: according to information from ABC News which has not yet been confirmed by the authorities, a “suicide note” (farewell letter) was found in one of the residences. families searched.
Several searches carried out
Thursday evening, the American media believed that the manhunt was over and that the suspect was holed up in a house belonging to his father and brother. “Robert Card, you are under arrest. We know you’re inside, come out with your hands in the air,” the police shouted through the megaphone.
After the initial confusion, a Maine police spokesperson clarified that several searches were conducted near a wooded road in Bowdoin, a town near Lewiston where the suspect resided, but that law enforcement did not didn’t know where Robert Card was
According to ABC News, the police notably seized computers and therefore found a “suicide note” that he left for his son. It would contain recriminations but would not explain his murderous spree. It is unknown whether Robert Card actually killed himself or whether he expected to be shot by the police in a “murder suicide” common among perpetrators of mass shootings.
According to The Messenger, Robert Card’s car, a Subaru Outback SUV, was found near a boarding point where he has a small 5 meter boat. The Coast Guard conducted searches on the northern portion of the Kennebec River, which did not appear to yield anything.
Potentially targeted attacks
What pushed the suspect to open fire with a semi-automatic rifle at the Just-In-Time recreation bowling alley and the Schemengees bar, where three deaf people who were participating in a cornhole tournament died? a sort of American pétanque)? His sister-in-law provided the beginnings of an explanation to The Daily Beast.
Robert Card had been complaining since last summer that he was hearing voices. He was hospitalized for two weeks in a psychiatric hospital for behavior considered worrying by the army. According to his sister-in-law, the targeted bowling alley and bar were the two places where Card believed he heard voices of people mocking him. The young woman insists: this mental health crisis seems to have been sudden and was not chronic.
A confined city
Maine is a rural American territory unaccustomed to such an outburst of violence. Eighteen murders is almost as many as the annual average of homicides statewide. Faced with an “armed and dangerous” suspect, residents were ordered to confine themselves to their homes. Schools and businesses are closed. Shutters and blinds too. Lewiston is a ghost town.
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The American president deplored a “tragic and senseless” act. . “Once again, our nation is in mourning,” said Joe Biden, calling on Congress to adopt “a ban on assault weapons.” An appeal immediately rejected by the new Speaker of the House, the ultraconservative Republican Mike Johnson, with the usual broken record: “This is not the time to talk about legislating, we are in the middle of a crisis. »