- According to the media, the death toll in this single incident is nearly equal to the average annual number of homicide victims in all of Maine
Robert Card, the suspected gunman in Wednesday’s mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, has been found dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities confirmed Friday.
The shooting incident with multiple victims in Lewiston, Maine, has become the 565th mass shooting recorded year to date in the United States in 2023, the non-profit organization The Gun Violence Archive reports.
“2023 Worst Mass Shooting unfolding tonight in Lewiston Maine… current numbers show 16 killed, 25 or more injured. This is the 565th Mass Shooting this year, the 31st Mass Murder,” the organization wrote on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter).
As NBC News notes, the death toll in this single incident is nearly equal to the average annual number of homicide victims in all of Maine, a largely rural state in the far Northeastern U.S..
Last year, 29 people were killed in Maine, while 20 homicide victims were recorded in the State in 2020. Lewiston has about 40,000 inhabitants.
The suspect’s body was located in the woods near Lisbon — a town about eight miles from Lewiston — in an area near a recycling center where he previously worked.
“This discovery is entirely thanks to the hundreds of local, county, state and federal law enforcement members from all over and people from other states as well as people who searched tirelessly to arrive at this moment and behalf of all Maine people,” Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) said in a press conference Friday evening.
“I want to express my profound gratitude for their unwavering bravery and determination and fortitude,” she added.
Mills said, like many others, she is “breathing a sigh of relief tonight” after Card was found dead.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) echoed Mills’ comments, thanking law enforcement and health care workers for their work.
“Mainers can breathe a collective sigh of relief thanks to the brave first responders who worked night and day to find this killer,” she wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. She added that President Biden had informed her of his death, adding “we both expressed our profound appreciation for the courage and determination of these brave men and women.”
She added, “To the families who lost loved ones and to those injured by this attack, I know that no words can diminish the shock, pain, and justifiable anger you feel.”
Card, 40, was on the run for two days, prompting local law enforcement to enter the waterways near where he abandoned his vehicle and enforce a temporary shelter-in-place order for several counties in the area. More than 100 federal and local investigators had been searching for the suspect.
“So the reality here is that this search has been extensive, it’s been thorough, it’s been nonstop since the minute we started speaking with you and long before that,” state Public Safety Commissioner Mike Sauschuck said.
Lewiston Police Chief David St. Pierre called it “by far the best news we’ve had in quite some time.”
“We’re going to grieve for the families that lost loved ones here, we’re gonna continue to work, we’re going to preserve and we become better people for it in terms of working together as teams,” St. Pierre said. “Again, I wasn’t really prepared for this on a Friday night at 10:30, but I’m very happy to be here and very happy to say the threat is over.”
The shooting marks the deadliest mass shooting in the United States this year and the deadliest since the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, last year.
Police confirmed the names of 18 victims in a press conference Friday evening.
Sauschuck confirmed that family members of the victims were notified of Card’s discovery ahead of the announcement Friday evening. He added that there are no indications that Card wasn’t acting alone.
Authorities say the investigation is still ongoing and more information will be released.