A man opened fire at a bar restaurant and bowling alley in Lewiston, Maine on Wednesday, killing at least 22 people and injuring scores more.
The shooting which occurred at about 7 pm Wednesday has been identified as the deadliest in the US this year.
Police say the “person of interest” in the incident is one Robert Card, who was trained as a firearms instructor at an Army Reserve training facility and who reportedly threatened to shoot at the military training base in Saco, Maine, after he was said to have “heard voices“.
Card was placed in a mental health facility for two weeks in the summer of 2023. The Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Office released two photos of the suspect on its Facebook page that showed the shooter walking into an establishment with a weapon raised to his shoulder.
The Maine victims were quickly rushed to Central Maine Medical Center.
Hospitals as far away as Portland, about 56Km to the south, were also placed on alert to potentially receive victims. Authorities ordered residents and business owners to stay inside and off the streets.
Police say Card could be “armed and dangerous” and asked anyone who sees him not to approach him as policemen swirled around the city in search of Card.
“We have literally hundreds of police officers working around the state of Maine to investigate this case to locate Mr. Card”, Maine Public Safety Commissioner Mike Sauschuck told a news conference.
President Biden Notified
President Joe Biden has been briefed and will continue to receive updates, a U.S. official said in Washington.
The president spoke by phone individually to Maine Governor, Janet Mills, Senators Angus King and Susan Collins, and Congressman Jared Golden about the shooting in Lewiston and offered full federal support in the wake of the attack, the White House said.
Mass shooting has become commonplace in America and has surged since the COVID-19 pandemic. The deadliest U.S. mass shooting on record is the massacre of 58 people by a gunman firing on a Las Vegas country music festival from a high-rise hotel perch in 2017.
This Wednesday tragic event has caused immense pain and suffering for many families. Our thoughts are with those affected by this senseless act of violence.
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