CV NEWS FEED // The suspected gunman who killed 18 people in a Maine mass shooting is a former Army firearms instructor who suffered from severe mental health problems and was recently institutionalized.
The mass shooting spree took place Wednesday evening at two locations in Lewiston, ME, a bowling alley called Just-In-Time Recreation (previously known as Sparetime Recreation) and Schemengees Bar & Grille Restaurant.
In addition to the 18 murdered victims, 13 more people were injured in the shooting, three of whom are reportedly in critical condition.
Suspect Robert Card, 40, is still on the loose and a manhunt is underway. Police have put out an arrest warrant for Card.
The Lewiston police department said the fugitive “should be considered armed and dangerous.”
CBS News reported that “Multiple shelter-in-place orders were issued for cities and counties in the region, and authorities expanded those advisories as the manhunt continued Thursday.”
The Associated Press (AP) added: “The attacks stunned a state of only 1.3 million people that has one of the country’s lowest homicide rates: 29 killings in all of 2022.”
According to a state police bulletin, Card is “a trained firearms instructor believed to be in the Army Reserve stationed out of Saco, ME.”
“According to law enforcement, [Card] recently reported mental health issues to include hearing voices and threats to shoot up the National Guard Base,” the bulletin continued. “[Card] was also reported to have been committed to mental health facility for two weeks during summer 2023 and subsequently released.”
“The fact that Card was committed to a mental health facility for a period of weeks indicates that it was an involuntary commitment, which means that he would have been banned from owning or possessing firearms,” wrote The Daily Wire’s Ryan Saavedra.
Saavedra referred to the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) which states: “Any person who has been ‘adjudicated as a mental defective’ or ‘committed to a mental institution’ is prohibited under Federal law from shipping, transporting, receiving, or possessing any firearm or ammunition.”
