When Kyle Green and his partner found out that a man had just committed a crime massacre near his home in Lewiston, and that he was fleeing, they “slowly lowered the blinds” so as not to scare their children and proposed a family movie night as an excuse to turn off all the lights.
Then they closed the doors and everyone, including their two dogs, sat in front of the television on the top floor of the house. The children, ages 10 and 12, fell asleep. But “we (the parents) took turns” sleeping to watch until morning came, explains this 40-year-old computer engineer, in front of the door of his house.
Sleeping is saying a lot, clarify. How can you sleep a wink when you’re so “insecure”? “Where is the killer now? Is he around here?” “It’s a terrible feeling,” he adds, clearing his throat to hide his emotion.
Like many of his neighbors on this quiet street in Lewiston, the second largest city in the state of Maine (northeastern United States), with some 36,000 inhabitants, struggles to assimilate what happened on Wednesday night.
(Also read: Joe Biden condemns the ‘tragic’ Maine shooting and urges a ban on assault weapons)
At least 18 people were killed Wednesday in the Just-In-Time shootings, a bowling alley, and in Schemengees, a restaurant-bar.
The suspect is an army reservist who remains at large and that shortly after the incident he appeared on security cameras carrying a semi-automatic rifle.
Empty streets of Lewiston after Wednesday’s shootings.
Thursday, Lewiston was practically a ghost town. Residents were ordered to stay in their homes, Schools closed and the parking lot of one of them was taken over by heavily armed police officers.
Pharmacies and restaurants closed and the streets surrounding the attacked establishments were cordoned off.
From time to time a few cars passed by, no one was seen in the gardens of the houses, nor children on the swings and slides.. Occasionally, someone peeks out from behind a curtain. “Stay at home,” asked a flashing light notice in the center of the city.
(You may be interested in: Why are lethal assault rifles so easy to acquire in the United States?)
Maine isn’t usually like this. I’ve lived here all my life
Debra Wright, 71, had to leave home because her husband collapsed and was hospitalized. Since the hospital was under a closure order, the doctor had to go to the parking lot of the place to reassure her about the health status of her partner.
On Wednesday night they heard the sirens of the police and ambulances just as they sat down to eat. The Schemengees is a three-minute drive from his house.
“When we found out, I was terrified,” she says from the wheel of her small apple green vehicle.
![Maine](https://www.eltiempo.com/files/article_content_new/uploads/2023/10/26/653b0a845292f.jpeg)
Stores closed after the shooting in Maine.
“Maine isn’t usually like this. I’ve lived here my whole life,” he explains. But “I won’t feel as safe as before,” she laments.
Since she will probably be spending the night alone at home, she can’t help but worry. It only calms her to remember that she installed locks on the doors. “And I have my dogs,” she says.
In this seemingly quiet community, the shootings were shocking.
“It’s different when this kind of tragedy happens in your city,” explains Anthony Nadeau. This forty-year-old man, who works for the state of Maine and is confined because government offices are closed, is friends with the owners of Just-In-Time and has spent several afternoons at the Schemengees bar.
(Also: ‘My heart is broken’: bowling alley owner who was attacked by shooter in the US.)
With a serious and visibly affected face, he said that “Maine and many other states…could do a little more on gun control, given the history of gun violence in the United States.
Kyle Green is not hopeful on the subject. “I would love to tell you that this is THE (shooting) that is going to provoke a reaction. But (…) it won’t,” he laments.
“It will end up being treated like all other shootings,” he says with resignation.
![Robert Card](https://www.eltiempo.com/files/article_content_new/uploads/2023/10/26/653a7c4d33035.png)
Robert Card, who has been identified as a person of interest, remains on the run.
Facebook / Lewiston Maine Police Department
What is known about the whereabouts of the attacker?
And it is that Hundreds of troops in the state of Maine, in the northeast of the United States, continue to search intensively this Thursday for the army reservist who opened fire on Wednesday at the bowling alley and the bar-restaurant.
President Joe Biden lamented “another tragic and senseless mass shooting” in the town of Lewiston where another 13 people were injured, three of them in critical condition, in the deadliest shooting this year in the country.
A vast area of the city remains blocked as the search for the shooter continues and authorities set up barricades. In the midst of the order to close schools and businesses, they also recommended that residents remain at home.
(Keep reading: He is Robert Card, US shooting suspect: ex-military and mentally ill)
The police identified the attacker as Robert Card, 40, and released his photograph with a beard, wearing a brown jacket, blue pants and brown shoes, armed with a semi-automatic rifle in the bowling alley.
On Thursday night, police surrounded Card’s father’s home near Bowdoin.
One of his former neighbors, Dave Letarte, said he was “stunned” by news of the shooting. “I would never have expected that from him,” the man said, referring to the youngest of the Cards.
![Robert Card, Maine massacre suspect](https://www.eltiempo.com/files/article_content_new/uploads/2023/10/26/653a858df35a2.jpeg)
Robert Card, 40, is the suspect in the Maine mass shooting that left 22 dead.
Lewiston Sheriff’s Office
Hundreds of police officers in military-style camouflage attire, as well as FBI (federal police) agents, crowd the search area. in “an all-against-one approach,” according to Lewiston Police Chief David St. Pierre.
“We continue to work tirelessly to bring this situation to a conclusion,” St. Pierre told reporters, with the goal of “locating and holding this person accountable.”
According to the head of Maine’s public safety, Mike Sauschuck, during the search the police found an abandoned white van about ten kilometers from Lewiston.
We continue to work tirelessly to bring this situation to a conclusion.
Authorities and rescuers said they arrived at the Sparetime Recreation bowling alley at 7:15 p.m. local time on Wednesday. and then received reports of another shooting in the area, at the Schemengees Bar Bar & Grille restaurant.
Several media also mentioned a shooting in a logistics center of a Wallmart supermarket, but the authorities have not confirmed it.
“I fell on top of my daughter, and my mother fell on top of me,” Riley Dumont said, explaining how her father, a retired police officer, overturned a table to protect children from the shooting.
This new massacre, one of the deadliest since the one in Las Vegas in 2017, is added to the long list of shootings that regularly mourn the United States, where weapons abound and are easy to acquire.
In 2023, the country will record at least 565 mass shootings, according to the non-governmental organization Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as one that leaves at least four or more people injured or dead.
Excluding suicides, more than 15,000 people have died from gun violence since the beginning of the year in the countryand Wednesday’s attack is the deadliest recorded during the period, according to the same NGO.
*With AFP
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