President Biden has called on Republicans to abandon their opposition to a ban on assault weapons after the deadliest mass shooting in the US this year left at least 18 people dead.
A manhunt was continuing on Thursday night in and around Lewiston, Maine, for Robert Card, a US army reservist and firearms instructor who is believed to have used an AR-15-style assault rifle in attacks on a bowling alley and a bar in the small city.
Card, 40, who was described by the police as “armed and dangerous”, spent two weeks in a mental health facility this summer after threatening to carry out an attack on an army base.
• Robert Card: what we know so far
His sister-in-law said that he had claimed earlier to have overheard people talking about him at the bowling alley and bar. “He truly believed he was hearing people say things,” Katie O’Neill told the Daily Beast website.
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“This all just happened within the last few months. I have known Rob my whole life. He is quiet but the most loving, hardworking and kind person that I know. But in the past year he had an acute episode of mental [illness].”
The US flag at the White House was lowered to half mast on Thursday. “Once again, our nation is in mourning after yet another senseless and tragic mass shooting,” Biden, 80, said in a statement. “Today, in the wake of yet another tragedy, I urge Republican lawmakers in Congress to fulfil 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 bear the scars, physical and mental, of this latest attack.”
He is highly unlikely to get his wish: the second amendment to the US constitution, which protects the right to bear arms, is guarded fiercely by many politicians and voters. They are instead likely to draw attention to Card’s mental state. It is believed that he was recently made redundant and may have served in the US army in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Officials told the Associated Press that commanders in the Army Reserve’s 3rd Battalion, 304th Infantry Regiment, became concerned about his erratic behaviour during training at the US Military Academy at West Point in July. State police later took Card to the Keller Army Community Hospital at West Point for evaluation.
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Court records suggest he does not have a criminal record, apart from a speeding ticket picked up more than 20 years ago, but it is not clear how he acquired what appears, from CCTV images, to be an assault rifle.
John Miller, CNN’s chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst, said the rifle may have had a telescopic sight. He said the gunman was wearing blue combat trousers with “bulging” pockets, suggesting that he may have been carrying extra ammunition.
By Thursday afternoon, the US coast guard had joined the search after Card’s car was discovered by a boat launch on the Androscoggin River.
Police and FBI agents surrounded Card’s home in Bowdoin, outside Lewiston, in a lengthy standoff. Officers could be heard calling on the suspect to “come out with your hands up,” and beaming spotlights on the property, but no arrests were made. The house has been under surveillance since the shootings and it was unclear what prompted the alarm.
Thirteen people were injured in the attacks, three of whom were described on Thursday night as being in a critical condition. A warrant for eight murders has been issued, with the ten other victims yet to be identified.
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Bob Violette, 76, was named as the first victim. His daughter-in-law, Cassandra, said he was a lifelong Lewiston resident. “He wouldn’t let you walk out the door without giving him a hug, and a kiss on the check. He was just there for everything,” she told the Portland Press Herald.
Violette’s wife, Lucy, was injured in the attack.
The identities of some of the other victims were also released or confirmed by relatives. They included Tricia Asselin, 53, who worked at the venue.
Joseph Walker, 57, a bar manager at Schemengees, was gunned down at the bar, with reports suggesting he confronted Card with a knife in a bid to halt the gunman and protect his customers.
Joshua Seal, 36 and a father of four, was confirmed dead by his wife. The fifth victim named was Bryan MacFarlane, 40, who had joined a group of deaf friends for a weekly Wednesday night game of corn hole.
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There have been more than 500 mass shootings — defined as four or more people killed or injured — in the US this year.
Card’s attack began at about 7pm on Wednesday. Lewiston police received reports of an active shooter at Schemengees Bar and Grille and at Sparetime Recreation, a nearby bowling alley. A number of parents and children were at Sparetime as part of a children’s bowling league. The ages of some of the victims are not known.
A bowler who identified himself only as Brandon said he had heard about ten shots, thinking the first was a balloon popping.
“I had my back turned to the door. And as soon as I turned and saw it was not a balloon — he was holding a weapon — I just booked it down the lane,” he said. He scrambled down the length of the bowling alley, sliding into the pin area and climbing up to hide in the machinery.
Janet Mills, 75, the governor of Maine, said the FBI had been drafted in to help in the search for Card. She emphasised that the police’s priority was to track him down.
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“This city did not deserve this terrible assault on its citizens, on its peace of mind, on its sense of security,” she said.
Riley Dumont told ABC News that her 11-year-old daughter had been taking part in a children’s bowling league at the venue when she heard several gunshots. Her father, who is a retired police officer, had moved the family into a corner.
“I was laying on top of my daughter,” Dumont said, adding that her own mother then lay on top of both of them to protect them. She said she saw three or four victims at the bowling alley.
With authorities still urging locals in Lewiston and nearby towns to shelter, the city’s streets were all but deserted and shops and restaurants shuttered and dark.
“We’ve lived here 30 years and we’re native Mainers. Never known anything like this here,” said Joe, leaning on his porch with his wife Emily, on the street behind Schemengees last night. “America,” he said, was “insanity on steroids”.
They were alerted to the shooting by the sound of sirens and saw police cars “pouring up the street.”
“I’m nearly 70 years old. I should have seen it all,” Joe added. “Now I regret that I have.“
