LEWISTON (Maine, US), Oct 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Hundreds of police in the US state of Maine hunted for a fugitive gunman who killed 18 people at a bowling alley and a bar, as President Joe Biden mourned “yet another senseless and tragic mass shooting”.
The rampage in the small northeastern town of Lewiston also left 13 people wounded, three critically, in the deadliest shooting this year in America.
A wide area around Lewiston was locked down during the tense search as authorities erected roadblocks, ordered schools and businesses closed, and told residents to stay indoors.
Governor Janet Mills said the suspect was “considered armed and dangerous, and police advise that Maine people should not approach him under any circumstances”.
“This attack strikes at the very heart of who we are and the values we hold dear,” Mills told a press conference. “This is a dark day for Maine.”
Police named the suspect as 40-year-old Robert Card – seen in surveillance footage pointing a semi-automatic rifle as he walked into the Sparetime Recreation bowling alley.
Police converged on the home of Card’s father in nearby Bowdoin early Thursday evening, closing off roads.
Card is a member of the US Army Reserve, according to law enforcement, and reportedly had recently been sent for psychiatric treatment after he said he was hearing voices.
Hundreds of police in military-style camouflage gear and FBI agents flooded the search zone in what Lewiston police chief David St. Pierre called “an all-hands-on-deck approach”.
Biden called Maine’s governor to offer federal support, and ordered flags to be lowered to half-staff at the White House and all government buildings.
“Once again, our nation is in mourning after yet another senseless and tragic mass shooting,” he said.
Biden added that the gun violence that plagues the US “is not normal, and we cannot accept it”, urging lawmakers to pass a bill banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.
The shooting is one of the deadliest in the US since 2017, when a gunman opened fire on a crowded music festival in Las Vegas, killing 60 people.
Mass shootings are alarmingly common in the United States, a country where there are more guns than people and where attempts to clamp down on their spread are always met with stiff resistance.
The country has recorded at least 565 mass shootings this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive (GVA), a non-governmental organization that defines a mass shooting as four or more people wounded or killed.
Efforts to tighten gun controls routinely run up against opposition from Republicans, staunch defenders of the constitutional right to bear arms. — NNN-AGENCIES
