Maine mass shooting suspect Robert Card is skilled outdoorsman, trained Army Reserve marksman
Suspected Maine mass killer Robert Card is a skilled outdoorsman and trained US Army Reserve marksman who was among the top shooters in his unit, according to reports.
Card, 40, the subject of a massive manhunt over a Wednesday night shooting spree that left 18 people dead and 13 others wounded, enlisted in the Army in 2002 and is a petroleum supply specialist, CNN said in a report.
He has no combat deployments, Army records show, but has extensive firearms training and is an “outdoors type of guy” who “would be very comfortable in the woods,” Clifford Steeves, who trained and served with Card in the reserves, told the outlet.
“He was a very nice guy — very quiet,” Steeves said. “He never overused his authority or was mean or rude to other soldiers. It’s really unsettling.”
He said Card always appeared to be a “rational, understanding person.”
Steeves said the two trained in Wisconsin, Georgia and New York — among other locations — with Card displaying a knack for the outdoors.
But authorities and relatives said the suspected gunman also had demons and spent two weeks at a mental health facility over the summer.
Card’s unit was deployed to the Camp Smith Training Center near the military academy at West Point when he began “behaving erratically” on July 17, a US Defense Department official told ABC-TV News.
“Out of concern for his safety, the unit requested that law enforcement be contacted,” the official said.
Card’s family also noted the downward spiral.
“He truly believed he was hearing people say things,” his sister-in-law, Katie O’Neill, told the Daily Beast. “This all just happened within the last few months.”
According to the Washington Post, Card was also an engineering technology student at the University of Maine from 2001 until 2004 but did not graduate.
Police in Maine said Card walked into the Just-In-Time Recreation Bowl in Lewiston shortly before 7 p.m. Wednesday and allegedly opened fire with an assault rifle, killing seven people.
Minutes later, he allegedly struck at Schemengees Bar & Grille about two miles away, killing seven more inside the establishment and one outside.
Three others who were wounded at the two sites were later pronounced dead at area hospitals, while an additional 13 people were injured by gunfire — including a 10-year-old girl.
Federal, state, county and local authorities are in the midst of a manhunt for Card.
“We believe this is someone who should not be approached,” Maine State Police Col. William Ross said at a press briefing Wednesday.
