[New post] Police settling into massive manhunt, evidence gathering operations with Mainers still under lockdown
gqlshare posted: "LEWISTON, Maine — Thousands of Mainers were still under lockdown orders Friday as law enforcement entered their second full day searching for a 40-year-old man suspected of committing a pair of mass shootings here.As people sheltered in Lewiston, Auburn, " Canon City Daily Record
LEWISTON, Maine — Thousands of Mainers were still under lockdown orders Friday as law enforcement entered their second full day searching for a 40-year-old man suspected of committing a pair of mass shootings here.
As people sheltered in Lewiston, Auburn, Bowdoin, and Lisbon, investigators and search teams made clear they were settling into an expansive evidence gathering and manhunt operation that included hundreds of law enforcement personnel from across the country.
Authorities issued this week an arrest warrant for eight counts of murder for Robert Card, the man they said allegedly entered Just-In-Time Recreation and Schemengees Bar and Grille Restaurant Wednesday and killed 18 people and injured 13 others.
Maine Public Safety Department Commissioner Michael Sauschuck said investigators have already received 530 tips and leads and planned Friday to have a team of divers search the Androscoggin River near a boat launch where a vehicle associated with Card was found.
Sauschuck said investigators were gearing up to use sonars, remote operated equipment, and aerial vehicles like planes or helicopters to check the river. A power company that operates two dams in the area planned to adjust the flow of water to help divers see more clearly, Sauschuck said.
"We certainly don't want to wait too long because the river is a big piece of this, the car was located there, evidence is located in the vehicle or right there along the shores of the Androscoggin River," Sauschuck said. "So that's stuff that we want to make sure that we're checking and we're using the resources that we have available."
Portland first responder vehicles staged at Lewiston High School on Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023, where a large number of law enforcement were gathering as the search for a suspect accused of a mass shooting. (Chris Van Buskirk/Boston Herald)
Police surrounded a home on Meadow Road in Bowdoin — where Card's last known residence is located — Thursday night with heavily armed law enforcement officials and tactical trucks. A searchlight was cast on the house, and police at one point commanded Card to come outside if he was in the building.
But as the evening progressed, police eventually left the scene. Maine State Police spokesperson Shannon Moss said law enforcement officials were at the home "to execute several search warrants" but did not know whether Card was in the house.
Sauschuck said investigators found a note at one of the residences they searched but declined to offer more details about its contents.
"I'm not prepared to really talk about what that included. And I think that's probably, again, a common sense answer because that does involve is there a mindset here, is there motive, what did that entail? So we'll definitely continue to work on that and when we can release it, we certainly will," he said.
Sauschuck outlined three areas where police planned to work Friday, including the area near the boat launch, the bar, and the bowling alley. But law enforcement were expected to fan out across the region, Sauschuck said.
"That's not saying that we know that the individual is in this house, or you know, the individual is in that house, or they're in that swath of land, this acreage. That's not what we're doing," Sauschuck said. "But we do look at all these situations as if the individual could be in there. And if that's the case, you'll see tactical teams, at some point."
Police investigate alleged homes of Robert Card's father and brother in Bowdoin, 15 miles (24km) away from Lewiston, Maine on October 26, 2023 the day after a mass shooting. Robert Card, a 40-year-old soldier in the US Army Reserve, is suspected of gunning down 18 people in a small town in the northern state of Maine. The shooting — which targeted a bowling alley and a bar in Lewiston on the night of October 25 — is one of the deadliest since 2017, when a gunman opened fire on a crowded music festival in Las Vegas, killing 60 people. (Photo by Joseph Prezioso / AFP) (Photo by JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images)
The shelter-in-place orders have disrupted life in the communities where they are in place, largely keeping restaurants, shops, convenience stores, and other businesses closed as police keep searching for Card.
Sauschuck said conversations about altering the shelter-in-place orders are "an ongoing conversation that we'll have every minute of the day, does it make sense that those orders are still in place?"
"We know that a shelter-in-place order in general, similar to orders around COVID, can have some negative impacts on families that go to school and businesses and all those other things," he said. "We have that in our mind, there is that plusses and minuses chart that's just kind of active as we kind of work through this thing."
Lewiston Police Chief David St. Pierre said the safety of the communities "remains paramount."
"I want to assure all that a tremendous amount of law enforcement manpower, time, and effort is being utilized around the clock, literally around the clock, in every effort to apprehend the suspect, as well as to safeguard this community," he said at City Hall.
The two shooting incidents Wednesday took place only minutes apart and FBI investigators initially interviewed around 70 witnesses that night, Sauschuck said.
Police said they first received a 911 call at 6:56 p.m. for a male shooting a firearm at Just-In-Time Recreation. Only minutes later, at 7:08 p.m., police received multiple 911 calls for an active shooter inside Schemengees Bar and Grille Restaurant.
"A large law enforcement response from multiple surrounding agencies assisted the Lewiston Police Department in trying to identify who this individual was and what was happening. As you can imagine, this was a very fast paced, fast moving very fluid scene, very dangerous scene that these guys and girls were going into," Maine State Police Col. William Ross said Thursday.
Seven people were killed at Sparetime Recreation, one female and six males, from gunshot wounds, Ross said. Seven males were killed inside Schemengees Bar and Grille Restaurant and one male outside the establishment was also killed, Ross said.
The arrest warrant for Card could later include more murder counts, Ross said.
"There is an arrest warrant for eight counts of murder for Mr. Card. And the reason it's eight counts, because 10 people have not yet been identified. As those people are identified, the counts will probably go to the total of 18. He should be considered armed and dangerous," he said.
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