they've ID'd a suspect. I'm not spreading it until it's confirmed, cuz god knows cops aren't great at protecting innocent people, and if they got the wrong guy I'm not contributing to their harassment. But they're saying the guy they're looking for is "a certified firearms instructor, and member of the Army Reserve."
the FBI Boston office is 'waiting to assist' which I think means something? I don't watch cop dramas that don't have musical numbers, so it might just be boiler plate "You can probably handle it."
The lock down has spread to Auburn. Lewiston and Auburn have a twin cities thing going on. it's the Lewiston-Auburn region. Always liked the name Auburn. This isn't a surprise, it's just been confirmed to me is all. They still haven't located the shooter, so Auburn isn't safe, obviously.
Anyway, schools are cancelled tomorrow, and hopefully for a damn week at least. And the hospital has been locked down. That stuff sounds reasonable.
this morning, so I wouldn't have heard about it BUT this morning, or maybe nine hours ago, little fuzzy, Lewiston pigs arrested a kid, like 17, who was carrying a glock, with several extended magazines, and a passport. What people are saying is the kid is rich (relative to living in Maine full time that is) and was supposed to be under house arrest for another shooting incident. I'm trying to find details on that. There's no connection, or any real reason to suspect one, but it feels like too big of a coincidence.
If it's really no connection, fine, but that kid they picked up was preparing to do the same fucking thing, and get away with it.
has apparently confirmed the identity of the shooter from records or something. Robert Card. He's 40, studied engineering in 2001-2004 or so. That would be about the same time the war on terror was heating up. If this is the right guy, he IS a certified firearms instructor and an Army Reservist, although now I'm curious when he became a reservist. I assumed they meant it was a present status.
I really am trying not to speculate too much, but I mean, we've all heard this story before, right?
there was NOT a shooting at the wal-mart distribution center, as was initially reported. It was the first thing I heard when I heard about this, and it didn't happen. Completely fake!
that Robert Card “recently reported mental health issues to include hearing voices and threats to shoot up the National Guard Base in Saco, ME.”
...
are on lockdown until they find the guy. And everyone is basically being told to shelter in place. What a horrible phrase to have entered the common lexicon.
They found his car in Lisbon, supposedly. In a ditch. Lisbon and Lisbon Falls are a few miles south east of Lewiston-Auburn. It's all forests. All the way to the coast. If he's heading that way, he got at little less than halfway there before losing the vehicle.
as of 24 hours or so later, here's the news:
We are starting to get the grim details of the shootings, and frankly, I'm not going to post those. I have enough trauma without wading through that. Just know that it's as tragic as possible. This is a nightmare in every manner.
The police still haven't found the shooter. The lock down order expanded north, up to Bowdoin, which I guess is where the shooter lives. It's a middle of nowhere forest town. An old sawmill and farm from the colonial days. 30 minutes from anything you'd want to look at or do.
Back in April, a 34 year old Joseph Eaton killed his family there, then drove south to Yarmouth, one of our quaint tourist towns on the coast, and shot randomly at passing cars ultimately wounding three people. In that case, the killer was four days out of prison for assault. Now, technically this has nothing to do with the current shooter. Just that you know... Bowdoin.
Uh... the Coast Guard is crawling the rivers and coasts just in case Card made it that far. Still no sign he's been caught, and the state government has gone quiet until there's a real development.
now stretch from Massachusetts to the Canadian border. God knows how they'd ever find the asshole if he got as far north as The County.
The death toll is currently holding at 18. Some have died in hospital care, and others reported as deaths have recovered from critical condition.
The FBI is actively assisting in roadside checks, and as of 15 or so minutes ago there was a house in Bowdoin, owned by relatives of Card, surrounded, while agents or cops shout for anyone inside to surrender. But they don't actually seem to know if anyone is inside.
Oh, and President Biden ordered flags be flown at half mast for five whole days. Thanks, Joe Biden!
So it sounds like the cops still aren't sure any of the houses in Bowdoin that they're trying to search have Card in them, but that at least one of them does have a belligerent person, possibly armed, and unwilling to cooperate with the warrant order. Cops are trying to negotiate with them. The press have been told to back off and shut off all lights. Tactical units are on hand, but I'm not sure whose tactical units.
The police have finished their searches of various properties in Bowdoin, and have concluded Card isn't there. Not sure if the other belligerent was anything, or misreporting.
The note found in Card's home is being described as a suicide note addressed to Card's son. The actual contents aren't known though. And we still don't have a motive other 'hearing mocking voices for months prior to this,' and more generally 'was a modern conservative man.'
No news. Still haven't found Card, or any confirmed evidence of Card.
They're dredging the Adroscoggin, which will take days. They don't seem to think he got beyond ten miles, and they seem to think he's dead. But they still haven't made an official comment about the suicide note he left.
I can't actually look at the news anymore because it's just the media shoving cameras into the faces of traumatized witnesses, and I can't deal with that.
There's a song about the experience of witnessing a shooting, that I love, because it really puts into perspective how awful people are to bystanders and survivors. Nobody who witnesses a tragedy is 'lucky.' You're just traumatized, and hounded by everyone, and get no time to process anything.
