The body of Maine shootings suspect Robert Card was found Friday night just before 8 p.m. not far from where he vehicle was found abandoned just hours after he killed 18 people at two locations in Lewiston.
“I stand her tonight to simply report that the Maine State Police have located the body of Robert Card in Lisbon,” said a visibly relieved Gov. Janet Mills. “He is dead.”
Maine Department of Public Safety Commissioner Michael Sauschuck said Card died from “an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound,” and his body was found at about 7:45 p.m. near the Androscoggin River.
“Tonight the city of Lewiston and the state of Maine begin to move forward on what will be a long a difficult road to healing, but we will heal together,” Mills said.
Earlier, US Sen. Angus King told WCSH that the body was found in the woods near a recycling center where Card had been recently fired. Sauschuck did not confirm that information but said he hoped to have that information by Saturday morning’s briefing.
Card, 40, allegedly walked into the Just-in-Time recreation bowling alley shortly before 7 p.m. on Wednesday and opened fire with an AR-style rifle, killing 10 people, including a 14-year-old boy and his father and his 76-year-old bowling coach and his wife. Aaron Young was the youngest victim of the shooting, and Bob Violette was the oldest, as CrimeOnline reported.
Plainclothed police officers, who were at a nearby shooting range, were at the the bowling alley a minute and a half after the first 911 calls came in, but Card was already gone. Minutes later and four miles away from the bowling alley, Card allegedly walked into Shemengees Bar & Grill, where he killed eight more people, several of them members of the area’s deaf community at the bar for a cornhole tournament.
And again, by the time police arrived he was already gone.
An hour later, police released security camera images of a suspect and his vehicle, which they found shortly after at a boat launch on the Androscoggin River in Lisbon, about 8 miles from Shemengees, and issued shelter-in-place orders for Lewiston, nearby Auburn, Lisbon, and Bowdoin, where Card lived.
Officials did not provide much information about the discovery of Card’s body, pledging to do so at another news conference Saturday morning. Sauschuck said that investigators spoke with family members of victims as well as Card’s family before stepping before reporters, saying it was important that they hear this information first.
He declined to speculate about how long Card had been dead.
Earlier, Sauschuck announced that the shelter-in-place order had been lifted. Officials announced some restrictions on the start of Maine’s deer hunting season on Saturday, but Friday night Sauschuck said those restrictions had also been lifted.
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[Featured image: Robert Card/Lewiston Police Department]
