Current:Home > BackMaine mass shooter was alive for most of massive 2-day search, autopsy suggests-InfoLens
Maine mass shooter was alive for most of massive 2-day search, autopsy suggests
View Date:2024-12-23 11:25:32
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The Army reservist who opened fire inside at a bowling alley and a bar in Lewiston, Maine, before disappearing was alive and possibly on the run during a good portion of the massive search that followed, according to a conclusion from the state medical examiner’s office released Friday.
Robert Card died from a self-inflicted gunshot that “likely” happened eight to 12 hours before the discovery of his body, based on a time-of-death analysis, officials said. The conclusion was announced a week after his body was discovered in the back of a tractor-trailer on the property of his former employer at a recycling center.
In the wake of the Oct. 25 shootings, which killed 18 people and wounded 13 more, tens of thousands of area residents sheltered at home behind locked doors as hundreds of law enforcement officers scoured the area looking for Card. He fled in a vehicle that was later found abandoned on a waterfront in a nearby town.
Law enforcement agencies came under scrutiny for not finding Card’s body earlier under the assumption that he killed himself in the hours just after the shootings and that his body was overlooked in earlier searches.
But the time of death provided by the state’s chief medical examiner, Dr. Mark Flomenbaum, suggests Card, 40, was alive and potentially on the move for more than 24 hours after the killings.
The medical examiner’s office, however, said Card suffered from a condition in which his heart emptied of blood after the gunshot wound, affecting the way the blood settled in his body and potentially making the time of death less certain, according to Lindsey Chasteen, office administrator of medical examiner’s office in Augusta.
A state police spokesperson had no comment Friday.
The latest disclosure in the investigation came on the same day President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden visited Lewiston to pay their respects and meet with victims. “Jill and I have done too many of these,” Biden said outside the bowling alley where Card first opened fire. The other site was a nearby bar.
Card had been known to law enforcement for months as family members and others became increasingly worried about his mental state.
Concern accelerated following an altercation he had with fellow Army Reserve members. Card and other members of the Army Reserve’s 3rd Battalion, 304th Infantry Unit were in New York for training July 15 when he accused several of them of calling him a pedophile, shoved one of them and locked himself in his motel room. Concerns over his mental health led to a 14-day hospitalization at the Four Winds Psychiatric Hospital in Katonah, New York.
The worries continued when Card returned to Maine. One of Card’s fellow reservists urged a superior to change the passcode to the gate and have a gun if Card arrived at the Army Reserve drill center in Saco, Maine.
“I believe he’s going to snap and do a mass shooting,” the reservist wrote in a text.
A deputy twice visited Card’s house in Bowdoin, calling for backup on the second visit, but Card didn’t come to the door. Under Maine’s “ yellow flag ” law, officers have discretion to seek to put someone in temporary protective custody and begin the process of removing the person’s access to guns.
That never happened. A sheriff said the deputies who visited Card for a wellness check didn’t have legal authority to break down the door and take Card.
What happened after the deputies’ visit remains unclear. The sheriff’s office canceled its statewide alert seeking help locating Card a week before the killings.
veryGood! (73)
Related
- 'Cowboy Carter' collaborators to be first country artists to perform at Rolling Loud
- Accused of bomb threats they say they didn’t make, family of Chinese dissident detained in Thailand
- Sentencing is set for Arizona mother guilty of murder and child abuse in starvation of her son
- Hep C has a secret strategy to evade the immune system. And now we know what it is
- Queen Elizabeth II's Final 5-Word Diary Entry Revealed
- Sheriff deputy in critical condition after shooting in Oregon suburb
- Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh shows again he can't get out of own way with latest misstep
- 12 juveniles charged in beating, firing guns at gas station: Officials
- Glen Powell responds to rumor that he could replace Tom Cruise in 'Mission: Impossible'
- North Carolina cancels incentives deal with Allstate for not attracting enough jobs in Charlotte
Ranking
- Suspected shooter and four others are found dead in three Kansas homes, police say
- Rob Manfred’s term as baseball commissioner extended until 2029 by MLB owners
- Medicaid expansion in North Carolina will begin Oct. 1, if lawmakers can enact a budget
- Tennessee educators file lawsuit challenging law limiting school lessons on race, sex and bias
- Denzel Washington Will Star in Black Panther 3 Before Retirement
- Save $300 on This Cordless Dyson Vacuum That Picks up Pet Hair With Ease
- 12 juveniles charged in beating, firing guns at gas station: Officials
- Miranda Lambert Mourns Death of Her Dog Thelma in Moving Tribute
Recommendation
-
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign chancellor to step down at end of academic year
-
In America's internal colonies, the poor die far younger than richer Americans
-
Mississippi can’t restrict absentee voting assistance this year, US judge says as he blocks law
-
Tottenham owner Joe Lewis charged by feds with insider trading
-
Utah AD Mark Harlan fined $40,000 for ripping referees and the Big 12 after loss to BYU
-
Rob Thomas Reacts to Ryan Gosling's Barbie Cover of Matchbox Twenty's Push
-
Ukraine lifts ban on athletes competing against Russians, but tensions continue
-
Log in to these back-to-school laptop deals on Apple, Lenovo and HP