Lewiston, in the state of Maine, is already part of that tragic map of the chronic armed epidemic in the United States.
This town, with 38,000 inhabitants, and others in its surroundings were described this Thursday as ghost cities. The schools closed. Many businesses did not raise their blinds. The streets were empty, while numerous police patrol cars circulated.
“He is armed and dangerous. If anyone sees him, don’t go near him,” warned William Ross, state police colonel.
He was talking about Robert Card, 40 years old, who fled after leaving 18 dead and thirteen injured on Wednesday night, three of whom were in critical condition.
Seven people lost their lives in a restaurant (six men) and eight in a bowling alley (all men). One was outside the premises. There were three others who were taken to hospital but efforts to save them were in vain.
The neighbors did not hide their feeling of fear and uncertainty knowing that evil was lurking. In his statements to the media, the sadness and psychosis that has been created with this massacre, the most important of those recorded this year, was perceived. And they are not few.
According to the non-profit organization Gun Violence Archive, there have been 562 mass shootings (at least four shot) and 31 mass killings (four dead or more). Add and continue on a list that already exceeds 22,000 deaths in 2022.
Agents from local, state and FBI police were deployed in a massive manhunt throughout that state territory.
Nothing comparable to this deployment was remembered in a state with a low level of crime, despite the large number of weapons given the great tradition and love of hunting. In turn, this means that the regulations for purchasing them are very lax.
All this is understood if the figures are put into play. Maine recorded 29 violent deaths in 2022, in a population of no more than 1.4 million residents. In 2020, 20 homicides were recorded.
Unlike other occasions, this time the alarm seems more than justified by the characteristics of the fugitive.
“Armed and dangerous,” Governor Janet Mills insisted at a press conference when referring to the person accused of the bloodbath.
The image captured of Card in the security videos caused the feeling of risk to be accentuated. He appears wielding a semi-automatic assault rifle, ready to pull the trigger of his AR-15, so fashionable among gunmen in this country and to which they have access in any gun store despite it being a weapon cloned from war weapons.
The fact that he was with his face uncovered also made us think that he was not looking to act and hide, but rather that he was on a suicidal mission: to die by killing.
He was soon identified and it was learned that Card, a resident of Bowdoin (Maine), has military training – he enlisted at the end of 2002 – and is a reservist who received a medal for “humanitarian services.” He was never deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan. A gun lover, he served as a shooting coach.
I heard voices. Last summer, while training with his battalion in New York, his teammates observed “erratic behavior.” Therefore, with the help of his family, they will admit him to a psychiatric center for two weeks.
“I don’t know what was wrong with this man or what was happening to him, but this is a nightmare,” Leroy Walker responded on MSNBC, through tears. 25 years ago he lost a daughter in a car accident. On Thursday he did not receive the message that his son Joey sent him every night, at ten thirty, when he closed the bar where he worked, where he started the first shooting, shortly before seven in the afternoon.
After 14 hours of waiting, his youngest son contacted him. Joey was dead. Police told the family that he died when he tried to attack the gunman with a knife.
Once again the eternal debate arose about how it is possible that a person with a history of mental illness could acquire an AR-15.
Mike Sauschuck, Maine’s public safety commissioner, acknowledged that the question was more than legitimate, however, “this is part of the investigation and I cannot answer it.” After a while it emerged that Card purchased the gun legally this year.
Chad Vicent was playing at the bowling alley and heard a noise, like a table falling to the ground. Five seconds later, one of his friends exclaimed: “These are shots!” And they started running.
President Joe Biden again urged Republicans to work together to ban the sale of assault weapons. Too soon, everyone was praying for the dead. It is clear that, although they believe in God, he does not pay attention to them.
