Maine State Police Col. William Ross said an arrest warrant had been issued for 40-year-old Robert R. Card, of Bowdoin, after he opened fire at a bowling alley and then a bar in Lewiston.
Card was born on April 4, 1983, and was an engineering student at the University of Maine between 2001 and 2004.
He enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserve in December 2002 and was most recently a petroleum supply specialist, and had no deployments.
Officials in Maine released a bulletin that said that Card is a trained firearms instructor in the Army Reserve who had “recently reported mental health issues” which allegedly included “hearing voices and threats to shoot up the National Guard Base in Saco, ME.”
From the Daily Beast:
Card’s sister-in-law Katie Card described him as “quiet… loving, hardworking, and kind” but said he’d had an “acute episode of mental health” in recent months.
He had recently began wearing powerful hearing aids to combat hearing loss. Since then, Card said her brother-in-law has been insisting to his family that he can hear people bashing him—including at Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley and Schemengees Bar and Grill, where he’s accused of gunning down 18 people on Wednesday night.
“He truly believed he was hearing people say things,” she said. “This all just happened within the last few months.”
Katie Card said her brother-in-law would “get mad” when they told him the voices were just in his head.
On social media, Newsweek reports Card’s activity centered on right wing figures.
Card liked a tweet from Donald Trump, Jr., regarding trans and non-binary “mass shooters” from March this year, which reads: “Given the incredible rise of trans/non-binary mass shooters in the last few years… by far the largest group committing as a percentage of population… maybe, rather than talking about guns we should be talking about lunatics pushing their gender affirming bullsh*t on our kids?”
Another tweet he liked, from Tucker Carlson, regarding the same subject, reads: “The trans movement, it turns out, is the mirror image of Christianity, and therefore its natural enemy. People who believe they’re God can’t stand to be reminded that they’re not.”
He also liked a post from Dinesh D’Souza about banning assault weapons, which reads: “Ban assault weapons? Well, cars kill more people than guns do. But we blame the drivers. We don’t ban large or fast cars. We understand that cars, like guns, don’t act by themselves. The blame lies with the people who operate these mechanical devices. Common sense 101.”
Liam Kent, a man who says he grew up around half a mile from Card and his family, told NBC News that they lived in “basically a compound.”
“The family and Robert, they’re all gun fanatics,” Kent said. “For all intents and purposes, they are very much associated with right-wing militias. It’s known in the town to stay away from them and not approach them.”
Card had been known to drive a white Subaru Outback with a black bumper. Officials said the vehicle was traced to a boat dock in Lisbon, Maine. Card owns at least one jet ski and a boat.
Other reports say that Card has ties to Massachusetts and police throughout New England are “on alert.”
