At least 22 people were killed and dozens more were injured in a mass shooting spree in Maine on Wednesday evening, in what is the deadliest attack on US soil in four years.
State police in Lewiston, the state’s second-largest city, confirmed an active shooter had attacked a restaurant and bowling alley.Multiple reports, citing police sources, said at least 22 people were killed and up to 60 were injured – the worst death toll since the same number were shot in a Walmart store in El Paso in August 2019.
The police department in Lewiston, Maine, says it has identified a person of interest in a series of mass shootings Wednesday night.
In a Wednesday night press conference, Maine Public Safety Commissioner Mike Sauschuck said that 40-year-old Robert Card of Bowdoin, Maine, should be considered armed and dangerous, and that his car has been found in the nearby town of Lisbon.
Sauschuck said there have been multiple casualties, but declined to give a number of those killed and injured, saying the numbers “are all over the map.” Sauschuck said the shootings began at 6:56 p.m. ET.
Lewiston police say the target of the manhunt is connected to shootings in at least two locations — including Schemengees Bar and Grille, and Sparetime Recreation, a bowling alley.
The two locations are 4.2 miles apart, on opposite sides of Lewiston, a small city in the northeastern US state around 35 miles north of Portland.
A shelter-in-place order remains in place for Androscoggin County, Maine, as authorities search for the suspect in Wednesday’s shootings. Previously, the police had instructed people to stay inside with doors locked, citing a “manhunt in the area.”
The Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston says it has been responding to a “mass casualty, mass shooter event,” and is coordinating with area hospitals to take in patients.
The police department has asked people to stay off the roads to give emergency responders easier access to hospitals. Mike Sauschuck said there are hundreds of police officers working around the state of Maine.
Lewiston is the second-largest city in Maine, with a population of about 40,000 people, and is about 40 miles from Portland. Lewiston is a former mill town that has had economic challenges over the years. The city has a diverse population, with many immigrants from Somalia, as well as a sizable population of French Canadians.
