On Wednesday night Robert Card, a 40-year-old military veteran and firearms instructor, is believed to have killed at least 18 people in Maine.
Card was found dead last night after a frantic two-day manhunt that has terrified the community. Police had said Card was a person of interest and not formally a suspect.
In the summer he was reportedly committed to a mental health facility to get treatment for what is so far an undisclosed condition. Reports suggest that he complained of “hearing voices” before receiving treatment.
Mike Sauschuck, a Maine public safety official, said: “He is a person of interest, and that’s what we’ll label them as moving forward until that changes. If people see him, they should not approach Card or make contact with him in any way.
• Hundreds of police hunt gunman who killed 18
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“We have literally hundreds of police officers working around the state of Maine to investigate this case, to locate Mr Card, who, again, is a person of interest, and a person of interest only.”
What is known is that before the killing spree in Lewiston, Card had openly threatened to carry out a mass shooting at a military training base in Saco, a nearby town in Maine, where he was based as an Army Ranger reserve. Some reports say he is a retired military officer, but it is not clear at this stage whether he saw active service in either Iraq or Afghanistan.
Local police said that Card is armed and dangerous and should not be approached. Time will tell how he acquired what appears from grainy photographs taken from CCTV cameras to be an AR-15 automatic rifle. But according to electronic court records he does not appear to have a criminal record, apart from a speeding ticket picked up more than 20 years ago.
John Miller, CNN’s chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst, said the rifle possibly had telescopic sight. He also said that the gunman was wearing blue combat trousers with “bulging” pockets, suggesting he could have been carrying extra ammunition.
Card lived in Bowdoin, just a few miles from Lewiston, and it is believed that he attended the University of Maine between 2001 and 2004, studying engineering, although it is not clear if he received a degree. He is reported to have recently lost his job.
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His car, a white 2013 Subaru Outback, was found in the early hours of the morning in Lisbon, about eight miles away from the shooting sites. Residents of the town were also told to take cover, stay indoors and not to approach him.
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.
