© Androscoggin County Sheriff's Office/Lewiston Maine Police Department via AP
Robert Card, the shooting suspect in Wednesday's attacks that left 18 dead in Lewiston, Maine, was found dead of a reported self-inflicted gunshot Friday night.
Update:
During a Friday night press conference, officials in Maine revealed the body of Robert Card was discovered in a recycling yard in Lisbon, Maine. His body was still in the same clothing that Card was pictured wearing in the photographs police released Wednesday night.Gov. Janet Mills (D) spoke at the press conference, saying, "The Maine State Police located the body of Robert Card, he is dead."
She added, "I'm breathing a sigh of relief knowing that Card is no longer a threat to anyone."Details on Card's death are scant, but WCVB
indicated the Androscoggin County Sheriff's Office announced, "The suspect in Wednesday night's shootings has been located and is deceased."
A manhunt for Card has been underway since late Wednesday night. The manhunt involved various police departments from Maine, departments from other states, the FBI, and other federal agencies.Breitbart News
noted that Card used a .308 sniper rifle that was "legally" purchased.
There are questions on how he purchased the rifle legally as he was taken to a West Point hospital for evaluation in mid-July 2023.
Two questions specifically: 1) Did Card's mental evaluation at a West Point hospital in mid-July 2023 not reach the level of an involuntary commitment? or 2) Did someone drop the ball in reporting an involuntary commitment to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) to prevent passage of a background check?
Comment: What's very curious about this case is that Card "began to hear voices that were saying "horrible" things about him about a couple of months ago when he was fitted for high-powered hearing aids",
according to his sister-in-law. Was Card being 'messed with'?
More from
CBS News:
He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Mike Sauschuck, commissioner of the Maine Department of Public Safety, said in a news conference Friday night.
Sauchuck said the body was located at about 7:45 p.m. local time near the Androscoggin River in Lisbon, a town about 8 miles southwest of Lewiston. The suspect's vehicle, a white Subaru Outback, had earlier been found abandoned by a boat launch on the river.
Maine Gov. Janet Mills told reporters that she called President Biden to inform him of the suspect's death.
...
Hundreds of state and local police and federal agents had been involved in the manhunt since the shootings Wednesday night.
For several hours Thursday night, heavily armed police had surrounded a house in Bowdoin, a small town where the suspect was from, about 35 minutes from Lewiston, but they completed their search there without finding him.
On Friday, police announced divers were conducting underwater searches near the location where his vehicle was found abandoned.
Authorities had recovered a weapon from the suspect's abandoned vehicle, law enforcement sources told CBS News' Pat Milton and Robert Legare earlier Friday. The firearm was legally purchased, a law enforcement source confirmed. It wasn't clear if the recovered weapon was used in the shooting.
CBS News had also learned that investigators had located the suspect's cellphone and were trying to crack it and pore over his online activity, including text messages and emails, hoping to find clues as to his motive in the shootings.
The deadly rampage began a little before 7 p.m. Wednesday night when police received a 911 call about a shooting at Sparetime Recreation, a bowling alley in Lewiston. Police later said six men and one woman there died of apparent gunshot wounds.
Just over 10 minutes later, at 7:08 p.m., police were called to the scene of another shooting a few miles away, at Schemengees Bar and Grille. Eight people there were killed, police said. Three other people died at area hospitals.
Police said the gunman fled in the aftermath of the shootings and they warned that he "should be considered armed and dangerous."
The suspect, a member of the U.S. Army Reserve, had recently reported experiencing mental health issues, including hearing voices, and threatened to shoot up a military base in Saco, a law enforcement bulletin seen by CBS News said. In July, he started "behaving erratically," a New York Army National Guard spokesperson told CBS News, and he was committed to a mental health facility for two weeks.
Several communities in the area spent the days since the shooting under shelter-in-place warnings, with schools canceled and residents urged to stay indoors. The shelter-in-place orders were lifted earlier Friday.
...
Investigators were looking into whether the suspect may have been targeting a specific individual, who is believed to be a current or former girlfriend, two U.S. officials and a former high-ranking official told CBS News. It wasn't clear if she was at either of the two locations that were attacked.
The victims of the mass shooting ranged in age from 14 to 76, the medical examiner said. They included a bar manager who tried to stop the gunman; a bowling instructor who was teaching kids; a beloved father; a 14-year-old and his dad; and several people taking part in a cornhole tournament for deaf athletes.
Comment: What's very curious about this case is that Card "began to hear voices that were saying "horrible" things about him about a couple of months ago when he was fitted for high-powered hearing aids", according to his sister-in-law. Was Card being 'messed with'?
More from CBS News: