Open in full screen mode Mike Sauschuck, Maine public safety official, during a press briefing where the 18 victims have been identified. Agence France-Presse Two days after the shootings which left 18 dead in Maine, the American police continued their hunt on Friday in the northeast of the United States to find the author of the killing, one of the worst of these in recent years. The gunman suspected of killing 18 people in shootings in Lewiston, Maine, has been found dead since the publication of this text. Read the full article here. Despite the intensification of the manhunt, the main suspect had still not been found by the end of Friday, leading authorities to ease travel restrictions. The stay-at-home order is lifted, Maine Public Safety Officer Michael Sauschuck said at a press conference, specifying that the hunt remained prohibited until further notice in four locations, including the town of Lewiston where the shootings took place. It was not clear, however, whether this order was lifted immediately or from the following morning. The situation remains dangerous, he added on Friday, calling on residents to remain vigilant. The main suspect, Robert Card, 40, an Army reservist, is accused of opening fire in a bowling alley and bar-restaurant, killing 18 people, aged 14 to 76, and leaving 13 injured. Local authorities released the profile of the deceased victims on Friday, releasing their photo, name and age. Among them are a father and his son, aged 44 and 14 respectively, and a couple aged 73 and 76.
The photos of the 18 victims, as well as their first names (but not their last names) were revealed by the authorities with the authorization of the families of the deceased.
The victims of this tragedy are our family members, friends, colleagues and neighbors. Maine is often said to be a big little town because our community is so close-knit, state Gov. Janet Mills said Friday on X (formerly -Twitter).
Which means that there are many of us, and I' ;am one of them, knowing the victims personally.
A quote from Janet Mills, Governor of the State of Maine
An education center for deaf and hard of hearing people, located on a small island 45 minutes' drive south of Lewiston, was particularly struck by the tragedy: Among those killed at the Schemengees bar and restaurant, four men had links with the school, as former students, educators, or parents, explained to AFP the director of the establishment, Karen Hopkins.
These four friends got together Wednesday evening to play cornhole, a typically American game of skill, she says.
Seven people lost their lives in the bowling alley, eight in the bar-restaurant and three injured people succumbed to their injuries in the hospital.
The police and the FBI visited several sites on Friday comb, particularly rural or forest areas, and probed the bottom of a river near which the main suspect's car was found.
The manhunt seemed close to a conclusion on Thursday evening: the police had gathered in front of a house owned, according to a neighbor interviewed by AFP, to the suspect's family.
Drones, helicopters and armored vehicles were also called in for reinforcement, but the police then left without making statements to journalists, many of whom were on site, as the suspect had not been located.
On the spot, many think he is dead, Cheryl Haggerty, a resident living near one of the sites visited by police.
Wednesday's killing is the worst in the United States since that of the Uvalde school in Texas, where a shooter killed 19 children and two teachers in May 2022.
The shooting at the elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, in May 2022, shook Americans, but not to the point of changing much about regulations in force.
Denouncing a tragic and senseless act, President Joe Biden on Thursday called on Congress to pass a ban on assault weapons – yet another call of its kind by the Democrat, despite a majority not found in decades for such a change of legislation.
The country is paying a very heavy price for the spread of firearms on its territory and the ease with which Americans have access to them . The United States has more individual weapons than people.
Excluding suicides, more than 15,000 people have died in gun violence since the start of the year in the country, according to the Gun Violence Archive (GVA) association.
Maine is one of the states with the lowest homicide rates per capita, and Wednesday's 18 deaths represent, according to the Everytown Association, more than the annual average of 18 deaths per capita. gun homicides in the state.