Gunman from Maine shooting rampage found dead

We’ve wrapped up our live coverage for the day. You can read more here on the Maine mass shootings investigation.

Despite the discovery of the body of Maine mass shooter Robert Card, the work of local and federal investigators continues, law enforcement sources told CNN.

Authorities continue to establish a timeline from the period of the second and final attack until the suspect was found dead, said one senior source involved in the investigation. Although authorities have no indication any other individuals aided the suspect in his massacre, the source said, establishing a full “pattern of travel” is an important aspect of the investigation in order to formally assess that the suspect acted alone.

An FBI Social Media Exploitation team assigned to the case is currently reviewing the suspect’s social media footprint in order to identify a possible motive, additional attack plans, and any associates who may be witnesses in the investigation, another federal law enforcement source said.

The ATF is also working to determine whether a gun recovered in the suspect’s abandoned vehicle was the weapon used in the attack, a third law enforcement source directly involved in the investigation tells CNN. The source said authorities are presently comparing the firing pin and residue from that weapon with marks left on shell casings from the two attack locations. 

The wife of one of the people killed in the Lewiston, Maine, shooting rampage says she is still processing the fact that the shooter is dead.

“I have mixed emotions about that,” Elizabeth Seal, wife of victim Joshua Seal, told CNN on Saturday.

Gunman Robert Card was found dead Friday night of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to authorities.

At least three of the 18 victims were part of the local deaf community, according to their families. Joshua Seal was the director of interpreting services for the disability advocacy group Pine Tree Society and frequently provided ASL interpretation for government press conferences in Maine, including during the Covid pandemic.

“Most of the state recognized him,” Elizabeth Seal said. “They saw him regularly.”

Seal said she had known her husband since they were both in preschool. While the shooter’s death leaves her without answers, Seal also feels relieved.

“It’s important that he was found,” she said, “and he’s gone.”

Maine’s top law enforcement official said the family of Robert Card, the suspect in the shooting rampage that left 18 people dead, has unfairly received threats due to Card’s actions.

“That family has taken a great deal of grief, to include threats,” said Commissioner of Public Safety Mike Sauschuck. “People hanging out at their houses and saying, ‘Do they know? Is it their fault?’”

Sauschuck said Card’s family has been “as a whole, very, very cooperative” throughout the investigation, and their assistance was critical to identifying Card, who was found dead Friday night of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Sauschuck declined to identify specifically how the family members who spoke to police were related to Card.

In an aerial view, law enforcement officials are seen investigating the area where Robert Card, the suspect in two mass killings, was found dead on October 28 in Lisbon, Maine.

The location where Lewiston shooting rampage suspect Robert Card abandoned his vehicle and the area where his body was found are connected by a trail, law enforcement said Saturday. 

“There is a natural connection” between the Papermill Trail boat launch and the overflow parking lot of Maine Recycling Corporation, Maine Public Safety Commissioner Mike Sauschuck said.

He also confirmed “there was an employment relationship” between Card and the recycling center “at some point,” but he did not know if Card was a current employee.

A law enforcement source told CNN’s John Miller that Card had recently been fired by the recycling company.

Sauschuck said two firearms were found alongside Card’s body, and he confirmed that police have concluded he shot himself. “When he took his own life, I don’t have an answer to that,” the commissioner said.

Sauschuck added that it appeared Card was wearing the same sweatshirt as was seen in surveillance video of the shooting, suggesting he never changed his clothes.

During the news conference, Maine Department of Public Safety Commissioner Mike Sauschuck said there are still questions around the motive of Lewiston shooting rampage suspect Robert Card.

“Clearly, there’s a mental health component to this,” he said.

Sauschuck said more research needs to be done in trying to get access to certain records on Card, as officials seek to answer more questions about his access to guns.

Sauschuck emphasized that the law makes a distinction between volunteering to seek mental health treatment and being forcibly committed — and a distinction between being required to receive a mental health evaluation, versus forced to receive treatment.

He added, “Just because there appears to be a mental health nexus to this scenario, the vast, vast, vast majority of people, the vast majority of people with a mental health diagnosis will never hurt anybody.”

Some background: The gun that investigators believe Card used to kill 18 people and wound 13 others was purchased legally just days before he was hospitalized and ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation due to a mental health episode at a military base where he served, multiple law enforcement sources told CNN Friday.

Officials shared more information Saturday about the note left behind by Maine shooting rampage suspect Robert Card, which a law enforcement official had previously told CNN indicated that Card did not expect to be found alive.

Card was found dead Friday after a more than 48-hour manhunt, following the shootings in Lewiston, Maine, which killed at least 18 people and wounded 13 others.

The note, a message left behind on a piece of paper at his residence, was addressed to a loved one and gave them the passcode to Card’s phone and his bank account numbers, Department of Public Safety Commissioner Mike Sauschuck said at a news briefing.

Sauschuck said investigators are now working to get into the phone, but they have to obtain a special warrant in order to access it.

The commissioner also confirmed that a “long gun” was found inside the white Subaru owned by Card, which was found near a boat launch in Lisbon. Investigators are working to confirm that the gun was connected to the deadly shootings at a restaurant and a bowling alley.

Maine Commissioner of Public Safety Mike Sauschuck speaks during a press conference at City Hall in Lewiston, Maine, on October 28, after the suspect in a mass shooting was found dead the previous day.

Maine Department of Public Safety Commissioner Mike Sauschuck gave more details about where authorities found the body of Lewiston shooting rampage suspect Robert Card during a news conference on Saturday morning.

Sauschuck said Card’s body was located in an unlocked box trailer in the overflow parking lot of the Maine Recycling Corporation, a facility in Lisbon.

He said that the recycling center had been cleared twice previously, but the owner had pointed out the trailers in the overflow area and asked authorities if they had cleared there.

The Maine State Police Tactical Team ultimately located Card’s body in one of those trailers, he added.

Later in the briefing, Sauschuck said there are 55 to 60 trailers in the area, but police located the body in the first three trailers.

A law enforcement source previously told CNN that Card’s body was found near a recycling center from which he had recently been fired,

Sauschuck said law enforcement will process the recycling center scene throughout the day.

Authorities intend to release more information at a 10 a.m. ET press conference Saturday morning about suspect Robert Card and the investigation, they said.

First row: Tricia Asselin, Peyton Brewer-Ross, Tommy Conrad, Michael Deslauriers II and Bryan MacFarlane. Second row: Arthur Strout, Joseph Walker, Joshua Seal, Maxx Hathaway and Ron Morin. Third row: Bill Young, Aaron Young, Stephen Vozzella, Bob Violette, Billy Bracket, Jason Adam Walker, Keith D. Macneir and Lucille M. Violette

For the victims of the mass shooting Wednesday night in Lewiston, Maine, it was an ordinary night out.

Some were participating in a cornhole tournament while others were enjoying a meal. Then a shooter ended their fun.

And now another American community is grieving as the identities of those friends and loved ones whose lives were lost emerge.

All the victims were identified Friday by officials. The oldest killed in the shootings was a 76-year-old man and the youngest was a 14-year-old boy bowling with his father.

These are their names:

Read more about the victims.

Lewiston shooting suspect Robert Card was found dead Friday evening, apparently from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, near the Androscoggin River in the Maine community of Lisbon Falls, state Public Safety Commissioner Michael Sauschuck told reporters.

Card, accused of killing 18 people and injuring 13 others Wednesday at a bowling alley and a restaurant in nearby Lewiston, Maine, was found dead around 7:45 p.m. Friday, Sauschuck said in a news conference Friday night.

Maine Gov. Janet Mills said she is “breathing a sigh of relief tonight knowing that … Card is no longer a threat to anyone.”

“Now is a time to heal,” Mills said at the news conference. “Tonight the city of Lewiston and the state of Maine begin to move forward on a long road to healing.

“We will heal together,” Mills said, adding she informed President Biden and the state’s congressional delegation of the news.

The US Army reservist accused of killing 18 people and injuring 13 others in a shooting rampage in a Maine city has been found dead, apparently from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after a two-day manhunt that terrorized local communities, multiple sources told CNN Friday night.

Read more about the shooting rampage.