Maine, USA. The furthermost state of New England, quaint, olde worlde atmosphere and values, a family destination with idyllic stretches of sand and Jessica Fletcher-type neighbours who never lock their doors.
Lewiston, population 37,121, a mix of new and old industries, Bates College, the alma mater of the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy, textile mills of the 19th century now home to new high-tech digital business and residential apartments.
On Wednesday evening, as the scattered blue light of the fading day caused crimson sunsets over City Hall, Robert Card II took a semi-automatic rifle chambered in .308 Winchester and opened fire inside the Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley, killing seven, including a party of deaf adults. He then drove four miles in a white Subaru to Schemengees Bar & Grille Restaurant, where at 7:08 pm he killed a further eight people, seven inside the restaurant and one outside. Three victims died at the Maine Medical Centre in Portland.
Two days later at 9:56pm the car was found abandoned in Lisbon, eight miles from Lewiston, at a boat launch along the Androscoggin River. The perpetrator was found inside the vehicle, with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
Robert Card II was a resident of Bowdoin, a small town of 3000 residents in the south-west. He embarked on an army career at 19, where he received firearms training, but saw no active duty. He took an engineering course at the University of Maine but did not complete. He had speeding tickets and a DUI charge previously, but according to his sister-in-law it wasn't until a year before the tragedy that he began to hear voices, and took to wearing a hearing aid. According to her, Card was
"quiet, most-loving, hardworking, a kind person."
In that past year he had threatened to kill military recruits at the Saco National Guard base. His erratic behaviour had alerted the army top brass and he had been committed to the Keller Army Community Hospital for a period of two weeks.
Why he was discharged so soon is as yet unknown.
https://youtu.be/4Gn-NSpjMF0