Police Lights. MWC file photo
LEWISTON, Maine, Oct 27 (Reuters) – Police in Maine searched the waters of the Androscoggin River on Friday with divers, robots, and sonar in their pursuit of U.S. Army reservist Robert R. Card, who they suspect is the mass shooter who killed 18 people at a bar and a bowling alley in Lewiston this week.
Tens of thousands of people in the area remained under orders to stay indoors for their safety while hundreds of officers extended a manhunt underway since the Wednesday night shootings.
Investigators focused on the river as the last known location of Card, whose white SUV was found abandoned at a boat launch. Public records show Card has at least one watercraft registered in his name, a 12-foot (3.6-meter), 155-horsepower vessel made by jet ski company Sea-Doo.
Card, 40, liked to hunt and fish and was a sergeant at a nearby U.S. Army Reserve base who law enforcement officials said had been temporarily committed to a mental health facility over the summer.
Mike Sauschuck, the Maine Department of Public Safety’s commissioner, warned the public not to be alarmed at the site of divers entering the river.
Sonar and robots were also being deployed in the Androscoggin and the Sabattus River, a smaller tributary that drains into the Androscoggin, local media reported.
Divers were in the water, WGME television reported on Friday afternoon with a journalist near the scene. About 40 officers swept the shoreline, the Lewiston Sun Journal reported, citing a Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife spokesperson.
As two boats outfitted with sonar covered the river, a helicopter overhead scanned the water with thermal imaging, the Sun Journal said.
A Thursday night search in the neighboring town of Bowdoin, where Card has a home, turned up a note, Sauschuck said, though he declined to say who wrote it or what it said.
Lewiston, a former textile hub of 38,000 people, and neighboring communities have been largely shut down since the Wednesday evening attacks to enable hundreds of officers to conduct their search. Colleges and public schools in the area canceled classes for a second day.
“I will ask the community to be as patient as possible with this process,” Lewiston Police Chief David St. Pierre said at a press conference.
The bloodshed rattled towns throughout Androscoggin County where residents were urged to “shelter in place,” or remain indoors.
More people were driving around Lewiston and neighboring Auburn on Friday as some grocery stores and fast-food stops opened their doors after a near-total shutdown on Thursday. Some people were anxious at the thought of how long the shelter-in-place would keep them out of work.
“Am I going to fall behind on my rent, my bills?” said Toni Martin, a 50-year-old employee at a casino in Oxford, Maine, that has kept its doors closed since Wednesday night.
Reporting by Gabriella Borter in Lewiston; Additional reporting by Nick Pfosi in Lewiston and Lisbon, Maine, and by Rich McKay; Writing by Daniel Trotta and Jonathan Allen; Editing by Stephen Coates, Mark Porter and Jonathan Oatis
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