On October 25, 2023 40-year-old Robert Card of Bowdoin, Maine shot and killed 18 people at a bowling alley. Robert Card’s family stated that he had mental illness problems, including hearing voices in his head and violent thoughts. Before the incident Robert had reported to authorities that he had mental health issues and needed to be checked out months before violent rampage. Robert Card’s family had contacted police around May 3, 2023 and stated that his mental health problem had started to decline in January. They were concerned for his well being and that he had access to firearms. After officials were informed of Robert’s mental health problems nobody would help. Robert Card had a military background as an army reservist and was assigned to a training facility in Saco, Maine.
6:56 P.M
The first 911 call came into the Auburn communications center Wednesday about a male shooting at Just-In-Time recreation, a bowling alley in Lewiston.
7:08 p.m
The first state troopers arrived at the bowling alley.
7:10 p.m
State police receive a report about the second shooting.
7:13 p.m
State police arrived at Schemengees Bar and Grille.
8:00 p.m
Maine state police issued an alert warning for the active shooter situations and warned residents to shelter in a place with their doors locked. Around the same time the Androscoggin county sheriff’s office shared photos of the man armed with a rifle who was wearing a brown sweater and blue pants.
9:17 p.m
Lewiston police released a photo of a vehicle: a white suv with a front bumper that may have been painted black and asked the public to call police if they recognized it.
9:26 p.m
Lewiston police received a call identifying the man in the distributed photos as Robert Card.
9:56 p.p
Lisbon police notified Lewiston police that officers had located a white Subaru at the Paper Mills Trail and Miller park boat launch in Lisbon. The vehicle was identified as belonging to Robert.
6:15 a.m Thursday
State police said they were expanding the shelter-in-place-advisory and school closings to include the town of Bowdoin; nothing more than 100 investigators, both local and federal, were working to locate Card.
A bulletin put out by the Maine Information and Analysis Center, a database for law enforcement
10:30 a.m Thursday
At the news briefing about the manhunt, authorities officially named Card as a suspect in the shootings, saying an arrest warrant had been issued charging him with at least eight counts of murder.
The counts were based on the identifications of eight out of the 18 people who were killed. The ten remaining victims have not been identified yet.
Seven of the victims were found at the bowling alley and eight were found at the Schemengees and that the three people transferred to area hospital were pronounced dead.
7:45 p.m Friday
Card’s body is found near the Androscoggin river in Lisbon Falls.
He had apparent self-inflicted gunshot wounds and it was unclear when Card died.
The shootings came as a shock to many in the state. Maine lacks what some consider basic gun safety laws. It does not come with a background check for all gun sales. More than 350 law enforcement personnel were involved in the search for the suspect. The mass shooting was the 565th in the U.S in 2023 and the deadliest so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
All 18 victims have been identified: Ronald G. Morin, 55; Peyton Brewer-Ross, 40; Joshua A. Seal, 36; Bryan M. MacFarlane, 41; Joseph Lawrence Walker, 57; Arthur Fred Strout, 42; Maxx A. Hathaway, 35; Stephen M. Vozzella, 45; Thomas Ryan Conrad, 34; Michael R. Deslauries II, 51; Jason Adam Walker, 51; Tricia C. Asselin, 53; William A. Young, 44; Aaron Young, 14; Robert E. Violette, 76; Lucille M. Violette, 73; William Frank Brackett, 48; Keith D. Macneir, 64.
