Gunman in Maine mass shooting found dead

The 40-year-old firearms instructor suspected of killing 18 people Wednesday at two businesses in Lewiston, Maine, was found dead Friday, officials said.

Robert Card’s body was found near the Androscoggin River in Lisbon Falls at 7:45 p.m., Maine Department of Public Safety Commissioner Mike Sauschuck said.

He had “an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound,” Sauschuck said at a late-night news conference officially announcing his death.

It’s unclear when he died, he said, and officials did not provide an exact location.

The shooter’s body was found near a former place of employment, three law enforcement sources told NBC News. Card worked at a recycling plant, according to two sources.

Leo Madden, a former executive at Maine Recycling in Lisbon Falls, said Card had worked at the facility, but couldn’t say whether he’d been recently fired or left on his own.

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Eighteen people were killed in the shootings, when Card, 40, allegedly opened fire at Schemengees Bar and Grille and the Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley Wednesday evening in Lewiston, a city of around 37,000.

Close relatives and loved ones of the victims and the shooter were informed of the news before the news conference, officials said.

“I just don’t want to forget the families that are grieving and will continue to grieve,” Lewiston Police Chief David St. Pierre said.

The development comes after a massive manhunt described earlier by Sauschuck as a “full court press.” More than 350 law enforcement personnel were involved in the search, state police have said.

Residents of Lewiston, as well as several surrounding towns, were told to shelter in place after the shootings. The order was lifted Friday evening. Lewiston, the state’s second-largest city, resembled a ghost town with many businesses closed.

A planned prohibition on hunting for four towns where the suspect might have been — Lewiston, Lisbon, Bowdoin and Monmouth — was withdrawn before it could go into effect at midnight. Saturday, billed as by state wildlife officials as Maine Resident Only Day, is traditionally the state’s most popular day for the sport.

An arrest warrant had been issued for Card for eight counts of murder, Maine State Police said Thursday morning. The eight counts were based on the initial identification of eight of the 18 dead, and the number of counts will probably go up, state police Col. William Ross.

All 18 of the dead have been identified.

A motive in the killings was unknown.

A member of Card’s family said his mental health had deteriorated quickly, and that he began to hear voices.

Card was a longtime Army reservist. His unit commanders sent him to receive psychiatric treatment this summer, and he spent about two weeks undergoing inpatient psychiatric treatment, two senior law enforcement officials said.

After the shootings Wednesday, Card’s Subaru was sought by police and was found later that night by a boat launch along the Androscoggin River in Lisbon, a town around 7 miles southeast of Lewiston, officials have said.

On Thursday, police executed search warrants in Bowdoin, the small town around 12 miles east of Lewiston where Card lived.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said in a statement late Friday, “Tonight, Mainers can breathe a collective sigh of relief thanks to the brave first responders who worked night and day to find this killer.”

The mass shooting — the deadliest in Maine history — shocked the state and people across the nation.

President Joe Biden earlier said the United States was mourning “yet another senseless and tragic mass shooting” and Collins called it a “heinous attack.”

Late Friday, the president marked the last few days as dark ones in the nation’s history.

“Americans should not have to live like this,” he said in a statement that renewed his call for stricter gun laws. “I will continue to do everything in my power to end this gun violence epidemic. The Lewiston community — and all Americans — deserve nothing less.”

Lewiston and the adjacent city of Auburn, just across the Androscoggin River, has a population of around 65,000 people.

Speaking at the news conference Frirday, Maine Gov. Janet T. Mills said, “Now is a time to heal.”

Mills described Lewiston on Friday night as “a great place” with “a history of hard work, of persistence, of faith, of opening its big heart to people everywhere.”

She concluded, “Robert Card is dead.”