Maine manhunt for Lewiston mass shooter extends to another night

Police in Maine extended their round-the-clock search for suspected Lewiston mass shooter Robert R. Card into the early hours of Friday, as the US Army reservist eluded a manhunt following the massacres that killed 18 people and wounded 13 more.

As officials urged people to stay indoors for their safety, part of the search played out on live television Thursday night as officials executed several search warrants in the neighboring town of Bowdoin where Card lived.

Law enforcement surrounded the rural home for more than two hours, with an FBI agent issuing orders over a bullhorn to "come out with your hands up," but apparently nobody was inside.

Police did not know if Card was inside when the operation began and the amplified messages were "standard search warrant announcements," a Maine Department of Public Safety spokesperson said, adding that officials were "doing their due diligence" in tracking down leads.

The town of Lewiston, a former textile hub of 38,000 people, and neighboring communities were largely shut down on Thursday to enable hundreds of officers to conduct their search.

The city on the banks of the Androscoggin River went quiet, with almost no cars on the roads, just a few people outside, and many downtown businesses closed. Rifle-toting security agents in bulletproof vests guarded the hospital where many of the shooting victims were taken.

Card, 40, is a sergeant at a nearby US Army Reserve base who law enforcement officials said had been temporarily committed to a mental health facility over the summer.

Police circulated photographs of a bearded man in a brown hooded sweatshirt and jeans at one of the crime scenes armed with what appeared to be a semi-automatic rifle.

On the night of the shootings, Card's trail led to Lisbon, about 11 km to the southeast, where Maine State Police found a white SUV they believe Card used to get away and parked at a boat launch on the river. Public records showed he has three watercraft registrations: two Sea-Doos and a Bayliner.

The bloodshed rattled towns throughout Androscoggin County that were under shelter-in-place orders as they joined the growing list of US communities to suffer from a gun massacre.

The number of US shootings in which four or more people are shot is projected to reach 679 in 2023, up from 647 in 2022, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive.