The suspect in a mass shooting that killed 18 people in the US state of Maine has been found dead, the state’s governor said on Friday, ending a two-day manhunt that mobilized hundreds of law enforcement agents and set jittery residents of the northeastern state on edge.
Robert Card, a 40-year-old army reservist, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and his body was discovered at 7:45pm, Maine Public Safety Commissioner Mike Sauschuck said.
Card is believed to be the perpetrator of a rampage on Wednesday evening that left 18 people dead and 13 others wounded in a bowling alley and a bar-restaurant in the city.
Photo: AFP / Lewiston Maine Police Department
“I’m breathing a sigh of relief tonight knowing that Robert Card is no longer a threat to anyone,” Maine Governor Janet Mills told a hastily called news conference.
The sentiment was echoed by US Senator Susan Collins, of Maine, who wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that US President Joe Biden had called her “to tell me the perpetrator of the heinous attacks in Lewiston had been found.”
Biden said the mass shooting brought “a tragic two days — not just for Lewiston, Maine, but for our entire country,” she wrote.
“I will continue to do everything in my power to end this gun violence epidemic. The Lewiston community — and all Americans — deserve nothing less,” Biden said in a statement released by the White House.
Authorities on Friday identified the victims, ranging from a husband and wife in their 70s, to a 14-year-old boy killed alongside his father.
The killing spree in a bowling alley and bar-restaurant was the deadliest mass shooting in the US this year.
Card’s body was found in Lisbon Falls, southeast of Lewiston near the Androscoggin River, authorities said.
US media said his body was found near a recycling center that was Card’s place of employment before he lost his job there.
Roads leading to the site were blocked by police on Friday evening, an Agence France-Presse journalist saw.
Sauschuck said that he could not immediately say when Card had shot himself.
Card was an army reservist, but had not been deployed in any combat zone. US media reported that he had recently been sent for psychiatric treatment after he said he was hearing voices.
“It’s a small community. When something like this happens, everybody knows somebody” affected, Lewiston resident Jeremy Hiltz said.
He said a number of intersecting social crises have afflicted the city of about 38,000 people.
“This community itself has been devastated by addiction and housing crisis and poverty... So to put this on top of it, it’s really just a devastating situation for us,” Hiltz said.
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
RELEASE: The move follows Washington’s removal of Havana from its list of terrorism sponsors. Most of the inmates were arrested for taking part in anti-government protests Cuba has freed 127 prisoners, including opposition leader Jose Daniel Ferrer, in a landmark deal with departing US President Joe Biden that has led to emotional reunions across the communist island. Ferrer, 54, is the most high-profile of the prisoners that Cuba began freeing on Wednesday after Biden agreed to remove the country from Washington’s list of terrorism sponsors — part of an eleventh-hour bid to cement his legacy before handing power on Monday to US president-elect Donald Trump. “Thank God we have him home,” Nelva Ortega said of her husband, Ferrer, who has been in and out of prison for the
RSS