USA
Maine: Suspected shooter dead – what is the motive?
Janet Mills, Governor of the US state of Maine. photo
© Matt Rourke/AP/dpa
For around two days, tens of thousands of people in the US state of Maine lived in fear because the perpetrator was missing after the massacre that left 18 dead. Now you can breathe a sigh of relief. The question of why remains.
After the body of the suspected shooter was found Maine police are continuing to investigate the motive for the terrible crime. The 40-year-old’s mental state clearly played a role, said the official responsible for public safety in the US state, Mike Sauschuck, at a press conference. However, further research is necessary.
The police only found the man’s body on Friday – 48 hours after the devastating massacre that left 18 dead in the small town of Lewiston. According to police, he committed suicide after his crime.
The man opened fire in a leisure center and a barbecue restaurant on Wednesday evening. He then escaped and his trail was lost in the wooded surroundings. After a relatively short time, the police identified 40-year-old reserve soldier Robert C. as the suspected perpetrator. According to their own statements, the police found his body on Friday evening (local time) – in a caravan that was parked in an alternative parking lot at a recycling plant. The man is said to have worked there at an undisclosed time.
Sauschuck also said that a kind of farewell note was found that showed that the suspected shooter did not expect to be taken alive. The message, which he left on a piece of paper, was addressed to a relative and contained access data to his cell phone and accounts. The official also said that based on current knowledge, there was nothing to indicate that the man had been forcibly committed to psychiatric treatment. As long as this is not the case, you can legally purchase guns in Maine, he explained.
Finally certainty after hours of fear
The police searched for the suspect with a large number for two days. The investigators also did not rule out an escape by boat. They received hundreds of tips from residents in connection with the search. The search was also very difficult because the sparsely populated area has many forests and swamps. Lewiston itself has almost 40,000 residents and is located about 200 kilometers north of Boston on the US east coast. “I’m breathing a sigh of relief tonight,” said Maine Governor Janet Mills on Friday evening.
After the incident, a state of emergency prevailed in the rural area of the northern state – public life practically came to a standstill. Authorities imposed a kind of curfew and asked tens of thousands of people in several communities not to leave their homes. Schools and shops remained closed for fear of the missing perpetrator. The order was only lifted on Friday evening (local time).
“Tonight we are grateful that Lewiston and the surrounding communities are safe after people spent agonizing days in their homes,” US President Joe Biden said after the body was found. Numerous “brave police officers” worked around the clock to find the suspect. “It was a tragic two days – not just for Lewiston, Maine, but for our entire country.”
Youngest victim only 14 years old
Authorities announced the names of the 18 people who died on Friday. The youngest was only 14 years old, the oldest was 76. In addition, more and more terrible details about the crime have become known in the past few days as eyewitnesses described their experiences. “I crawled around the corner, but at that point I already had a gunshot wound in my arm,” said Jennifer Zanca, who was in the barbecue restaurant with friends at the time of the crime. She ended up hiding behind a garbage can. “I don’t know what to do next because it just keeps happening and there have to be solutions,” she said, referring to such acts.
The Maine massacre is the deadliest in the United States since the shooting at an elementary school in Texas in May 2022. At that time, a gunman in Uvalde killed 19 children and two teachers. In the USA, these bloody acts are sadly part of everyday life. Firearms are easily available there and are widely circulated.
This repeatedly leads to discussions about tightening gun laws, but so far without any real result. As a rule, pushes for stricter gun laws fail because of the Republicans and the powerful gun lobby. President Biden also repeatedly calls for stricter regulations.