The suspect in the deadly mass shooting in Maine this week “interacted with conspiratorial content” on topics ranging from stock market fluctuations to LGBTQ issues and gun rights to Democratic politicians, including President Joe Biden.
Maine authorities, however, told law enforcement partners they don’t believe Robert Card had a connection to domestic terrorism, ABC News reported.
The latest on Maine Mass Shootings:
– Suspect ‘interacted with conspiratorial content’ on line, including items about gun rights and President Biden
– Canada Border Services Agency issued alert to be on the lookout for Card
– Card’s sister suggested he may have been looking for an ex-girlfriend at shooting locations
– Army says Card was not trained by military to be a firearms instructor and didn’t serve as one
– Investigators found a gun in Card’s abandoned Subaru and a suicide note at his home
Law enforcement sources also told ABC News that investigators are looking to see if a domestic dispute, possibly involving Card’s ex-girlfriend could have precipitated the shootings at a bowling alley and a restaurant in Lewiston that left 18 people dead and 13 people wounded.
A large law enforcement presence was at a house in Bowdoin associated with Card, 40, Thursday night, but officials said the hovering helicopters and drones and loudspeaker announcements for Card to come out with his hands up were standard procedure for executing search warrants, CrimeOnline reported. It was not known if Card was in the house at the time, and it appears that he was not by the end of the operation. It’s not known if officers made entry.
Authorities have so far issued eight warrants for cards arrest on murder charges — for the eight victims who have so far been identified, CrimeOnline reported. More warrants will be added as more victims are identified, police said.
Earlier on Thursday, law enforcement sources said that Card left a suicide note for his son, but it did not provide any clues as a motive for the shooting that has terrified Maine’s second largest city and prompted lockdowns in at least three cities in the area. Investigators have also said that Card left behind his cell phone, meaning he can’t be tracked using it.
The Canada Border Services Agency sent out an alert to its agents early Thursday to be on the lookout for Card, an Army reservist who was confined to a mental health facility for two weeks this summer when he started hearing voices and threatened to shoot up an Army Reserve training center in Saco, Maine, the Portland Press-Herald reported.
Authorities were also searching the waterways, where Card could have fled on his jet ski or 15-foot Bayliner boat, the Sun-Journal reported.
Card’s family is reported to be cooperating with authorities, ABC News said. It was Card’s sister who said she thought her brother might have been looking for an ex-girlfriend at Just-in-Time bowling or Schemengees Bar & Grill, although it wasn’t clear why he would have needed an AR-style rifle to look for her.
ABC said that Card was previously married but divorced in 2007, with his ex-wife citing irreconcilable differences. The divorce granted shared custody of the couple’s minor child, according to court documents, and was amended in 2013 to included shared parental rights and responsibilities. The child’s primary residents was with his mother.
Card was an Army reservist but not, as previously reported, a military-trained firearms instructor. According to NBC News, the Army said he was neither trained by the Army nor served in that capacity in the Army. Army spokesperson Bryce Dubee said that Card’s rank was sergeant first class.
Authorities said they found a gun in Card’s Subaru Outback, which was located at a boat dock in Lilburn Wednesday night after the shootings. They have not said if it was the AR-style rifle, which was bought legally in recent months, used in the killings.
The shootings prompted Maine’s second district congressman, Jared Golden, to reverse his previous stance on an assault-style weapons ban.
“I ask for forgiveness and support as I seek to put this end to these terrible shootings,” he said.
Maine’s senior senator, Susan Collins, said she thought current laws were good enough, although she did say she would support a ban on high-capacity magazines for the assault-style weapons. She said that she thought Maine’s “yellow flag” law — a weaker version of “red flag” laws aimed at preventing people who show signs of being a danger to themselves or others from buying or owning a firearm — was sufficient.
“It certainly seems that on the basis of the facts that we have, the yellow flag law should have been triggered,” she said.
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[Featured image: Robert Card/Lewiston Police Department]