On October 25, 2023, a gunman killed 18 people and injured 13 others during a shooting spree at two locations in Lewiston, Maine, United States. The first mass shooting was at the Just-in-Time Recreation bowling alley, during a youth league event, and the second occurred minutes later at the Schemengees Bar & Grille Restaurant.
The Androscoggin County Sheriff's Office released a photograph of the suspect, 40-year-old Robert Card, and an intensive manhunt commenced. An arrest warrant was issued, citing eight counts of murder. On October 27, he was found dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound in a tractor trailer near a recycling center in Lisbon, where he had recently worked.
The shooting is the tenth-deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, as well as the deadliest of 2023 and the deadliest in the history of Maine.
Events
Shootings
The shootings occurred on October 25, 2023, beginning at Just-In-Time Recreation, a Lewiston bowling alley, during a youth league event. The shooter used a semi-automatic rifle chambered in .308 Winchester and equipped with an extended magazine and optic. Police received the first emergency calls at 6:56p.m. EDT. Plainclothes officers using a nearby shooting range also heard the gunshots and responded. The first responding officers arrived at the scene within four minutes of the first call. Seven people were killed at this location.
Shortly after, at 7:08, a second shooting was reported at Schemengees Bar & Grille Restaurant, south of Just-In-Time. Officers arrived at the scene two minutes later. Eight people were killed at this location, seven of them inside the building and the eighth outside. Another three victims died later in a hospital.
At 8:06, the Androscoggin County Sheriff's Office and Maine State Police alerted residents of an active shooter. The sheriff's office also released images of Card inside the bowling alley with a "high-powered assault-style rifle", as well as an image of his 2013 Subaru Outback, warning residents that the shooter was "armed and dangerous".
The Central Maine Medical Center coordinated with local area hospitals to take in victims. Several were taken to the Maine Medical Center in Portland, the largest hospital in the state.
Manhunt
Three hours after the shooting, police in Lisbon, located about southeast of Lewiston, found Card's abandoned vehicle at a boat launch along the Androscoggin River. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives provided assistance to local authorities.
On October 26, the Maine State Police and Governor Janet Mills confirmed the number of victims and announced that an arrest warrant was issued for the suspect, who was charged with eight counts of murder. Police surrounded a house in Bowdoin while executing a search warrant.
On October 27, Michael Sauschuck, the Maine public safety commissioner, said that police were using dive teams and sonar remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs) to search for underwater activity near where Card's vehicle was found in Lisbon. Sauschuck said they did not definitively know the means of escape. That same day, the shelter-in-place order in Lewiston was rescinded, but hunting restrictions in Bowdoin, Lewiston, Lisbon, and Monmouth were imposed.
On the evening of October 27, Card was found dead near his former place of employment, a recycling center close to the Androscoggin River in Lisbon. The recycling center had been searched the night before, but his body was found in a box truck on part of the land that had not previously been searched. Card's cause of death was an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. The hunting restrictions that had been put in place were subsequently removed.
Victims
Eighteen people were killed and thirteen others were injured. Seven were killed at Just-In-Time Recreation, eight were killed at Schemengees Bar & Grille Restaurant, and three died in a hospital. Four of those killed in the restaurant were deaf, having been participating in a cornhole tournament for the deaf community. Ranging in age from 14 to 76, the dead were all identified on October 27.
Perpetrator
Robert Russell Card II (April 4, 1983 – October 27, 2023) was a longtime resident of Bowdoin, Maine. He was identified by the police on October 25, initially as a person of interest, and later designated as a suspect the next day. He was a sergeant first class in the United States Army Reserve and enlisted in December 2002. An Army spokesperson confirmed that Card was a member of the reserves, but had no active deployments.