Lewiston Maine shooting LIVE: Police reveal warning weeks before rampage

Donations to victims can be made through the Maine Community Foundation

As we awoke and began a late October Thursday, we found horrific news from Lewiston, where gun violence has struck disturbingly close to home. There are no words to express the grief, terror, and sadness that grip all of Maine today, not least our friends, colleagues, and neighbors in the Lewiston-Auburn area.

We grieve with the residents of Lewiston, and I want you to know that we are already hard at work to support recovery efforts for this wonderful community that will need our expertise, networks, and resources during the long road ahead. We will respond to this tragedy with direction from the affected community, including Maine Community Foundation’s Androscoggin County Committee and other community partners.

MaineCF has created the Lewiston-Auburn Area Response Fund to address current and emerging needs associated with this tragedy. With MaineCF as a conduit, 100% of every dollar donated will be allocated to people impacted and the organizations that will help guide Lewiston-Auburn through the process of healing.

Donations may be made to victims and survivors or to the broader recovery effort at the link above; checks may be sent to:

Lewiston-Auburn Area Response Fund
Maine Community Foundation
245 Main Street
Ellsworth, Maine 04605
(207)-667-9735

The public safety commissioner said the suspect left a note for “a loved one,” which contained information like the passcode for Card’s phone and bank account numbers.

Mr Sauschuck clarified that although this was “not explicit suicide note,” the “tone and tenor was that the individual was not going to be around.”

Maine’s first mass shooting

Kayleigh Morris, 33, works “right behind” the bowling alley and, like the rest of Lewiston, was struggling to come to terms on Saturday with the fact a mass shooting had been brought to the doorstep of the quiet town – in a famously peaceful state.

“This is our first mass shooting in this state,” the mother of two told The Independent. “This was our first one ever, and it is number 10 in the worst mass shootings in America.”

Up until Wednesday, the 10th-largest number of fatalities during a US mass shooting had been 17, an inglorious distinction tied by the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre and a 1966 shooting at the University of Texas.

A glimpse into the Lewiston life

Much of the gossip and social life for years has centred on pub sports – darts, pool and, importantly, cornhole, with residents avidly playing in leagues and following tournaments.

“When I first moved out to Maine, one thing that I was really surprised by was the fact that everybody up here is really good at pool and at darts and at cornhole – everybody’s pretty competitive, but they’re also really good,” Alex McMahan, who co-owns a chain of dispensaries and moved to the state from South Carolina, told The Independent.

“Places like Schemengees, where it’s got the pool, the darts and the cornhole, it is the quintessential place to be in a city like Lewiston … pretty much everybody frequented it.”

Reporting from Lewiston, The Independent’s Andrea Blanco and Sheila Flynn have the full story…

WATCH: Maine shooting suspect’s former boss told police where to look for him after two failed searches

ICYMI: What we know about Card’s death

Police on Friday night said they had found Card’s body after a 48-hour-long manhunt. He is believed to have died by suicide.

The 40-year-old suspect was found in a box trailer in the overflow lot of Maine Recycling Corporation. Maine State Police found Card’s body after the owner of the recycling plant reportedly called in, urging police to look at the 55 to 60 trailers in the lot. Police said they had “cleared” the area twice before getting the call from the owner, who was reportedly Card’s ex-boss.

Two firearms were recovered from the scene and a third firearm — a long gun — was recovered from a white Subaru station wagon, which officials had identified as belonging to Card on Wednesday night. The “vehicle of interest” had been found at a boat landing in Lisbon.

“He is dead,” Maine governor Janet Mills said at a news conference, as she thanked the officers involved in the manhunt.

“Like many people, I am breathing a sign of relief tonight, knowing that Robert Card is no longer a threat to anyone… Now is the time to heal.”

Bravery as shots were fired

Thomas Giberti now has seven bullet wounds after being struck in Wednesday’s attacks at the bowling alley, Just-In-Time Recreation.

He was trying to shepherd children at the bowling alley to safety but was struck by gunfire in the back doorway, his nephew said. Instinctively swinging his legs out of the way, he managed to pull himself against a corner and sat there until a paramedic found him and made a tourniquet with Mr Giberti’s own belt to stop the bleeding.

“He’s a very humble person and doesn’t like the spotlight at all,” Mr Bourgault, Mr Giberti’s nephew, told The Independent. “He said, ‘I’m not a hero, I just reacted,’ … And I told him, ‘Tom, that’s what heroes do. You could have run out the back door yourself, but you didn’t. You chose to go into the bowling alley where the gunfire was coming from and get those kids.’”

Sheila Flynn and Andrea Blanco have the full story…

Ominous timing: The Senate passed a relevant amendment just before the shooting

Mere hours before Robert Card, a US army reservist, allegedly began his shooting spree on Wednesday, the Senate approved an amendment that would cut down background check requirements for some veterans and service members with mental health issues.

The amendment aims to prevent veterans from losing their gun rights, and prevents the Department of Veterans Affairs from reporting certain veterans to the National Criminal Background Check system when their finances are being managed by a conservator at the VA.

Reports have suggested that Card had been hearing voices and was upset by them. Officials also said at Saturday’s press conference that there is a “strong mental health cloud over what happened,” but dismissed the theory that he had been hearing voices.

Robert Card had attempted to buy a silencer months before the mass shooting

The suspect tried to buy a silencer for a rifle at a local firearms store, the owner told ABC News.

“He came in and filled out the form, he checked off a box that incriminated himself saying that he was in an institution,” Rick LaChapelle, owner of Coastal Defense Firearms, said. “Our staff was fantastic, let him finish filling out the form, and said, ‘I’m sorry, Mr. Card, we cannot give you this… at this point in time, we cannot release this silencer to you because of the answers that you’ve given us.”

Mr LaChapelle added “we did what we were supposed to do and hopefully saved a lot of lives by the proper, just following the proper procedures.”

The victims of the tragedy

Wednesday’s gruesome attacks claimed 18 lives and left 13 others injured. The shootings broke out in a close-knit community in Maine, where people were just living their day-to-day lives at a bowling alley and a restaurant.

A vigil will be held on Sunday for the victims.

In order to remember them, Andrea Cavallier and Rachel Sharp have the full story on who they were…