The suspect in a mass shooting that killed 18 people in the US state of Maine has been found dead.
A manhunt for Robert Card, a sergeant at a US Army Reserve base, had been under way since 18 people were killed and 13 others wounded in two shootings at a bowling alley and a restaurant in Lewiston, Maine, on Wednesday night.
“Like many people, I am breathing a sigh of relief tonight, knowing that Robert Card is no longer a threat to anyone,” Maine Governor Janet Mills told a news conference on Friday.
Card, 40, is believed to have died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, multiple media outlets said, citing law enforcement officials. His body was found in woods close to the nearby town of Lisbon, where police found his abandoned vehicle shortly after the shooting.
Authorities on Thursday said they had found a suicide note, addressed to Card’s son, which did not specify a motive for the shooting.
Card had a history of mental illness and was committed to a psychiatric facility for two weeks earlier this year, according to law enforcement officials.
Card, who enlisted in the military in 2002 but had not been deployed to a combat zone, had reported auditory hallucinations and made threats to shoot up a National Guard base, according to a law enforcement bulletin issued after the shootings.
The discovery of Card’s body brings to an end a 48-hour manhunt that followed the deadliest shooting in the modern history of Maine, a sparsely populated state located in the New England region of the northeastern United States.
The victims of Wednesday’s rampage, the deadliest episode of gun violence in the US this year, ranged in age from 14 to 76 and included a father and son out for a night of bowling and a sign language interpreter.
The death toll makes it the worst mass shooting since the Las Vegas massacre in 2017, when a gunman killed 60 people at a crowded music festival.
US President Joe Biden on Thursday condemned the attacks as “senseless and tragic” and reiterated his call to Congress to enact universal background checks and bans on so-called assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.
(Aljazeera)