Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credit: Joseph Prezioso / AFP
American police are actively searching, during the night from Thursday to Friday, for the man suspected of having killed 18 people in a bowling alley and a bar in the state of Maine, where several localities continue to ask residents to remain confined to their homes .
Twenty-four hours after this tragedy which occurred in the northeast of the United States, the quest seemed to accelerate: the police gathered in the early evening in front of a house belonging to it, according to a neighbor interviewed by the ‘AFP, to the suspect’s family. Drones, helicopters and armored vehicles were also called in for reinforcement. “Please come out,” the police repeated through the night through the megaphone, “we would like to speak to you.”
“Armed and dangerous”
But the police then left without making any statements to journalists – there were many on site – and the authorities seemed to dampen hopes that the identified suspect had been located. “We do not know at this time if Robert Card is in one of the houses that are being searched by the police,” wrote on X (ex-Twitter), the Maine State Police, who takes part in this vast hunt in the middle of a rural and wooded territory.
Considered “armed and dangerous” according to authorities, Robert Card, 40, an army reservist, was identified as the alleged perpetrator of Wednesday’s killing in Lewiston. A photo released by police shows a man dressed in a brown top entering a bowling alley, a semi-automatic rifle on his shoulder. Because the shooter was on the run, residents were ordered to confine themselves to their homes, turning Lewiston into a ghost town.
Schools and businesses closed their doors and the high school parking lot was taken over by police officers in fatigues, armed to the teeth. “It’s a dark day for Maine,” Janet Mills, the state’s governor, said Thursday morning, announcing the very heavy toll.
“Tragic and senseless”
Seven people, one woman and six men, lost their lives at the bowling alley, eight in a restaurant about twelve minutes away, and finally three in the hospital. Witnesses at the Just-In-Time recreation bowling alley described how customers hid under the tables and in the machines at the end of the lanes. “I was lying on top of my daughter, my mother was lying on top of me,” Riley Dumont described to ABC.
The authorities have not communicated the identities of the victims, but among the lives lost at the “Schemengees” restaurant is Joseph Walker, 57, who worked in the establishment, his father told several American media. He said police told the family that his son tried to stop the killer with a kitchen knife before being killed.
Joe Biden deplored a “tragic and senseless” act on Thursday morning and ordered flags on federal buildings to be lowered to half-mast. “Once again, our nation is in mourning,” lamented the American president, calling on Congress to adopt “a ban on assault weapons” – yet another call of its kind by the Democrat despite a majority not found for decades for such a change of legislation.
During a press conference Thursday evening, a Democratic elected official from the district that includes Lewiston announced he had changed his mind in light of this event and now supports such a measure.
Dissemination
Wednesday’s killing is the worst in the United States since that of the Uvalde school in Texas, where a shooter killed 19 children and two teachers in May 2022. The country is paying a very heavy price for the spread of firearms. fire on their territory and the ease with which the Americans have access to it.
The United States has more individual weapons than people. Excluding suicides, more than 15,000 people have died in gun violence since the start of the year in the country, and Wednesday’s attack is the deadliest recorded over the period, according to the Gun Violence Archive association ( GVA).
Maine is one of the states with the lowest per capita homicide rate, and Wednesday’s 18 deaths are, according to the Everytown Association, more than the annual average of gun homicides in the state .