Nov 2023. Blues Vol 39 No. 11

sent out a patrol boat Thursday
morning along the Kennebec River
but after hours of searching,
they found “nothing out of the
ordinary,” said Chief Petty Officer
Ryan Smith, who is in charge
of the Coast Guard’s Boothbay
Harbor Station.
Card’s car had been discovered
beside a boat launch near
the Androscoggin River, which
connects to the Kennebec, and
Card’s 15-foot (4.5-meter) boat
remains unaccounted for, Smith
said. But he added that officials
didn’t have any specific intelligence
that Card might have
escaped aboard his boat. “We’re
just doing our due diligence,” he
said.
The Canada Border Services
Agency issued an “armed and
dangerous” alert to its officers
stationed along the Canada-U.S.
border.
A bulletin sent to police across
the country after the attack said
Card had been committed to a
mental health facility for two
weeks this past summer after
“hearing voices and threats to
shoot up” a military base.
A U.S. official said Card was
training with the Army Reserve’s
3rd Battalion, 304th Infantry
Regiment in West Point, New
York, when commanders became
concerned about him.
State police took Card to the
Keller Army Community Hospital
at West Point for evaluation,
according to the official, who
was not authorized to publicly
discuss the information and
spoke to The Associated Press on
condition of anonymity.
Immediately after the shooting,
police armed with rifles took positions
around Lewiston, Maine’s
second largest city, with a population
of 37,000. The once overwhelmingly
white mill community
has become one of the most
diverse cities in northern New
England after a major influx of
immigrants, mostly from Somalia,
in recent years.
UPDATE - OCT. 31ST
A sense of relief washed over
a grieving Maine community that
endured two days of fear after
authorities announced the man
accused of killing 18 people at a
bowling alley and a restaurant
earlier this week was found dead
on Friday, Oct. 27th.
The body of Robert Card, 40,
was discovered near a river
some 10 miles from the shattered
community of Lewiston
with a self-inflicted gunshot
wound, authorities said.
Card’s body was found inside a
box trailer sitting in an overflow
parking lot of Maine Recycling
Corporation in Lisbon, Maine
Public Safety Commissioner Michael
Sauschuck said at a news
conference Saturday morning.
Card had recently been fired
from the recycling center, a law
enforcement source told CNN.
“Some of those trailers are
locked. Some of those trailers
aren’t,” Sauschuck said. “He
was found inside one of those
boxes that was unlocked from
the outside.”
Two firearms were found
alongside Card’s body, Sauschuck
said, and he was wearing
the same sweatshirt seen
in surveillance video of the
Wednesday night shooting,
suggesting he never changed
his clothes. It is unclear when
he took his own life.
Sauschuck said the facility
was initially searched and
considered clear, but the owner
of Maine Recycling directed
law enforcement to additional
trailers that investigators did
not initially realize were part of
the same recycling center.
The discovery ended a roughly
two-day manhunt that left
many residents in the serene,
picturesque area living on
edge and fearful to leave their
homes.
The BLUES 45