LEWISTON, Maine (AP) — The city of Lewison, Maine, embarked upon a healing process — and a search for answers — on Saturday, a day after the body was found of a U.S. Army reservist who authorities said opened fire at a bowling alley and a bar and killed 18 people.
The city of Lewison, Maine, embarked upon a healing process — and a search for answers — on Saturday, a day after the body was found of a U.S. Army reservist who authorities said opened fire at a bowling alley and a bar and killed 18 people.
Thirteen people were also injured when 40-year-old Robert Card of Bowdoin — a firearms instructor who grew up in the area — was found dead in nearby Lisbon from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Maine Gov. Janet Mills at a Friday night news conference called for the healing process to begin.
“Like many people I’m breathing a sigh of relief tonight knowing that Robert Card is no longer a threat to anyone,” Mills said on Friday night.
Whitney Pelletier hung a hand-drawn “Lewiston Strong” sign in the glass door of her downtown cafe, Forage, on Saturday morning.
Like other local businesses, Forage has been closed for days as police searched for the man who fatally shot 18 people at a bar and a bowling alley in Maine’s second largest city. She said the dead include one of their regular customers and that her boyfriend knew others.
“Last night when they found his body, I think the fear that I had been holding onto just living in downtown Lewiston was replaced with sadness,” she said of the gunman. “Just for the victims and their loved ones and for a community that wakes up today feeling a little less safe.”
April Stevens, a Lewiston resident who knew one of the victims, said she was relieved to learn that the “monster and coward” who inflicted so much pain was no longer a danger.
“I’m relieved but not happy, » she said. « There was too much death. Too many people were hurt. Relieved, yes, happy, no.”
Maine Department of Public Safety Commissioner Mike Sauschuck said Card was found at 7:45 p.m. near the Androscoggin River, about 8 miles (13 kilometers) southeast of where the second shooting occurred Wednesday evening. He declined to divulge the location but an official told The Associated Press the body was at a recycling center from which Card had been fired.
The official was not authorized to discuss details of the investigation publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
On Saturday morning, Whitney Pelletier hung a hand-drawn “Lewiston Strong” sign in the glass door of her downtown cafe, Forage.
Like other local businesses, Forage has been closed for days as police searched for Card. She said the dead included a regular customer and that her boyfriend knew others.
“Last night when they found his body, I think the fear that I had been holding onto just living in downtown Lewiston was replaced with sadness,” said Pelletier, who co-owns the cafe. “Just for the victims and their loved ones and for a community that wakes up today feeling a little less safe.
