A children’s bowling league was playing at a bowling alley in Lewiston, Maine, on Wednesday night when a gunman opened fire, witnesses say, in the early stage of a multi-location shooting attack that left 18 people dead.
A massive police search was still underway Thursday for 40-year-old Robert Card, who is considered armed and dangerous. Card is accused of twin mass shootings in Lewiston at the Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley and Schemengees Bar, about four miles away.
The Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Office released images of the shooter entering the bowling alley wielding a black rifle. Authorities say he opened fire at about 6:56 p.m., then moved onto Schemengees just after 7 p.m.
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Seven victims were found at the bowling alley with fatal gunshot wounds—one female and six males—and eight male victims were found dead at Schemengees, Maine State Police Col. William Ross said. Their ages and identities were not released.
“None of this seems real, but unfortunately it is,” the bowling alley wrote in a Thursday morning post on their Facebook page. “We are devastated for our community and our staff. We lost some amazing and whole hearted people from our bowling family and community last night. There are no words to fix this or make it better. We are praying for everyone who has been affected by this horrific tragedy. We love you all and hold you close in our hearts.”
Witnesses inside the venue at the time described a scene of horror that tragically included wounded children.
Riley Dumont said her daughter was taking part in the children’s bowling league when she heard shots ring out. “I heard a really loud bang,” she told WMTW. “I didn’t think anything of it at the time, but my dad looked at me,” Dumont said, explaining that her father is a retired police officer.
She said he saved lives by huddling a group into a corner. “He put tables over us and just made sure we were safe,” Dumont said. “He just kind of went into action at that point. It felt like it lasted forever.” She added that she lay on top of her daughter to protect her, while Dumont’s own mother lay on top of her. Two other mothers and daughters were with them, she added.
Meghan Hutchinson said she too was in the bowling alley at the time of the shooting with her daughter Zoey, who was injured in the attack but was not seriously wounded. “She was grazed by a bullet while we were running,” Hutchinson told the station. “We were in the back room. Another child came in whose arm had a massive—was bleeding profusely. So we barricaded in there and another parent was in the room with me.” She said the other parent called 911.
After the shooting stopped at the bowling alley, the carnage continued at Schemengees Bar & Grille.
“My heart is crushed,” read a post on the bar’s Facebook account early Thursday. “I am at a loss for words. In a split second your world gets turn [sic] upside down for no good reason.”
The post went on to say that “great people in this community” had been lost. “How can we make any sense of this,” it added. “Sending out prayers to everyone.”
Leroy Walker, a city councilman in Auburn, Maine, found out Thursday that his son Joseph, a manager at Schemengees, had been killed. He told The Daily Beast shortly before he got the news that he feared the worst.
“I’m going now to meet with my daughter-in-law,” Walker said in a text message around 11 a.m.. “Someone is coming to see her. I believe it is our notification that my son was one of the deceased.”
Reports have referenced a bulletin released by the Maine Information and Analysis Center, a law enforcement database, which said Card is in the Army Reserve and had “recently reported mental health issues” that allegedly included “hearing voices and threats to shoot up the National Guard Base in Saco, ME.”
The bulletin said Card was reported to have been committed to a mental health facility for two weeks during the summer and subsequently released.
In an interview with The Daily Beast, Card’s sister-in-law Katie Card described him as “quiet... loving, hardworking, and kind” but said he’d had an “acute episode of mental health” in recent months.
He had recently began wearing powerful hearing aids to combat hearing loss. Since then, Card said her brother-in-law has been insisting to his family that he can hear people bashing him—including at Just-In-Time Recreation and Schemengees.
The Lewiston Police Department also released an image of a white SUV on Wednesday night. It was later found at a boat launch in Lisbon, around eight miles from Lewiston.
A permit is not required to carry guns in Maine, a state that has a long history of firearm ownership and traditions of sport shooting and hunting. According to the Maine Department of Public Safety, the state recorded just 29 murders for the entirety of 2022.
