Maine gunman likely lived for much of two-day manhunt

The gunman who fled last month after killing 18 people and wounding 13 others at a bar and bowling alley in Lewiston, Maine, was most likely alive during much of the two-day manhunt that had forced thousands of residents across the region to stay. in their homes.

The assailant, Robert R. Card II, 40, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound eight to 12 hours before his body was found in a trailer at a recycling plant where he once worked, the Maine medical examiner’s office said Friday. it is likely that he was alive during much of the search.

It remains unclear whether the shooter hid in the recycling plant’s trailer the entire time after the shooting, or whether he went there later, but the time estimate suggests the lockdown in and around Lewiston was justified.

Law enforcement and other officials have scrutinized the manhunt, in part because they searched the recycling plant, Maine Recycling, twice without finding Mr. Card. During a third inspection on October 27 – two days after the shooting – they also searched for the first time an adjacent dirt parking lot used by the company. That search occurred after a company supervisor contacted police and suggested they look through the trailers, officials said.

There is also criticism that the local sheriff’s office and the Army Reserve failed to prevent the shooting, despite warnings from Mr. Card’s family and colleagues – dating back to May – that he had guns and was increasingly angry and paranoid became.

The gunman’s ex-wife and teenage son said in May that he began hearing voices and wrongly believed people were accusing him of being a pedophile. In September, his Army Reserve unit in Saco, Maine, contacted the sheriff’s office in Sagadahoc County, where the shooter lived, and asked officers to check on Mr. Card.

A sergeant went to his house, but Mr. Card did not answer the door, and the sheriff’s office decided to leave the matter largely in his family’s hands after being assured they had a way to secure his weapons.

The hunt for the gunman, who carried out the nation’s deadliest mass shooting this year, had spread across a wide swath of the largely rural state, with many forests and other potential hideouts. The search created an atmosphere of great concern among residents as police cruisers, dogs, helicopters and divers searched farms, forests and waters in the area. Police were inundated with calls from concerned residents who reported hearing noises in their backyard or seeing someone walking on the street who they believed could be the suspect.

The night of the shooting, officials in the neighboring city of Auburn said called on residents to take shelter on site, lock all doors and report suspicious persons. They warned that the attacker was armed and dangerous.

Later that evening, police found the gunman’s abandoned vehicle in Lisbon, about eight miles from Lewiston.

The next day, Maine State Police said the force was expanding its on-the-ground advisory for Lewiston, the state’s second-largest city after Portland, and Bowdoin, about 15 miles away. Classes were canceled at Bates College in Lewiston and in local and neighboring school districts.

The gunman was found dead around 7:45 p.m. on Oct. 27, about 49 hours after the shooting began, authorities said. The recycling center where he was found is just over 10 miles southeast of Lewiston and about a mile from where he left his car.

This past week, Maine Gov. Janet Mills said she would work with the attorney general to create an independent commission to investigate the shooting and the warning signs. The panel, made up of legal and mental health experts, was tasked with establishing “the facts and circumstances” surrounding the tragedy, including the police response and the months leading up to it.

“The seriousness of this attack on our people – an attack that strikes at the core of who we are and the values ​​we hold dear – requires a higher level of investigation,” Ms Mills said in a statement.

Shaila Dewan, Chelsia Rose Marcius, Johannes Ismay, Michael Levenson And Jenny Gross reporting contributed.