The man accused of killing 18 people and injuring 13 others in a shooting rampage in Lewiston, Maine, was discovered dead on Friday, concluding a 48-hour manhunt that followed the state’s deadliest episode of gun violence in history, authorities said.
“All we can confirm is that he’s deceased, and there’ll be a press release,” said a spokeswoman for the police department in adjacent Lisbon.
According to ABC News, citing anonymous law enforcement officials, the suspect, Robert R. Card, 40, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
According to CNN, quoting a law enforcement source, Card’s body was discovered in the woods near Lisbon by a recycling center from which he had recently been sacked.
On Wednesday night, a US Army reservist is alleged to have opened fire in a bowling alley and subsequently a pub.
The shootings and subsequent manhunt shook Lewiston, Maine’s second-most populous city and a generally bustling but peaceful community.
Divers used sonar to search for evidence — or a body — along the Androscoggin River in nearby Lisbon, seven miles (11 km) southeast of Lewiston, early in the day. Card’s white SUV was discovered nearby, according to Maine Public Safety Commissioner Mike Sauschuck.
According to Sauschuck, businesses in the area can reopen, while hunting is restricted in Lewiston and a few adjacent towns to minimize confusion caused by gunshots ringing out.
“We want our residents to remain vigilant,” Sauschuck said.
The community is located on the banks of the Androscoggin River, approximately 35 miles (56 kilometers) north of Portland, the state’s largest city, and almost as far southwest of Augusta, Maine’s capital.
Authorities describe Card, an Army Reserve sergeant from the nearby town of Bowdoin, as a certified firearms instructor who worked as a petroleum supply expert at the military reserve base in Saco, Maine.
He also has a history of mental illness, according to law enforcement, and was confined to a psychiatric center for two weeks during the summer of 2023, after which he was released.
Within hours of the bloodshed on Wednesday night, police disseminated surveillance camera photographs showing a bearded man wearing a brown, hooded sweatshirt and trousers and carrying what appeared to be a semi-automatic rifle from one of the murder scenes.
