UPDATE: Shooting suspect Robert Card was found dead on Friday evening from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, state Public Safety Commisioner Mike Sauschuck said in a news conference.
Card has been accused of killing 18 people and injuring 13 others Wednesday at a bowling alley and a restaurant in nearby Lewiston, Maine.
PREVIOUSLY: Cable news went into marathon-coverage mode Wednesday night as the nation was shocked by reports of mass shootings in Lewiston, Maine.
The shootings occurred at Schemengees Bar & Grille Restaurant and Sparetime Recreation, a bowling alley, the Lewiston Police Department shared on Facebook. At an official press conference, Mike Sauschuck, commissioner of the Maine Department of Public Safety, did not disclose an estimate of the number of people killed and wounded in the shooting incidents.
CNN, Fox, MSNBC and NewsNation were among the news channels covering the shootings and sharing ongoing updates from police, including the Lewiston Police Department identifying the “person of interest” as Robert R. Card.
“These incidents end when police arrive and confront the shooter — the shooter takes his own life or engages with polices or tries to take their lives,” said John Miller, CNN’s chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst, on Wednesday night. “In this case, the shooter made a definitive effort — a deliberate effort — to get away. To get away from the first location, to commit the second part of the crime, to get away again. So we have to ask ourselves, from a behavioral standpoint, is he getting away because he thinks he’s not gonna be identified, that he might get away with this crime? Or this worst scenario, is he getting away because he has another target, that he has another location?”
President Joe Biden issued a statement on Thursday on the shootings in Lewiston, Maine: “once again, our nation is in mourning after yet another senseless and tragic mass shooting. Today, Jill and I are praying for the Americans who’ve lost their lives, for those in critical care, and for the families, survivors, and community members enduring shock and grief.”
He added, “For countless Americans who have survived gun violence and been traumatized by it, a shooting such as this reopens deep and painful wounds. Far too many Americans have now had a family member killed or injured as a result of gun violence. That is not normal, and we cannot accept it.”
President Biden concluded his statement by saying, “Today, in the wake of yet another tragedy, I urge Republican lawmakers in Congress to fulfill their duty to protect the American people. Work with us to pass a bill banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, to enact universal background checks, to require safe storage of guns, and end immunity from liability for gun manufacturers. This is the very least we owe every American who will now beae scars — physical and mental — of this latest attack.”
