Killer found dead after bowling alley massacre
THE gunman who slaughtered 18 people at a bowling alley and a bar in the US has been found dead – ending a tense three-day manhunt.
Army reservist Robert Card, 40, took his own life ‘within hours’ of the attack in Lewiston, Maine, on Wednesday night, police suggest.
Commissioner for Maine public safety Michael Sauschuck said Card’s body had been found on Friday night in an industrial trailer belonging to a recycling company which had recently fired him. The site had been searched twice before police were told that it had an overflow car park.
Card died from an apparently selfinflicted gunshot wound and had left a note with bank details and instructions on how to unlock his phone. A police spokesman said: ‘The theory is that Card killed himself shortly after carrying out the murders, probably within hours, but we’re waiting for the coroner to confirm.’
Thirteen people remain in hospital, with four in critical condition. Those killed ranged in age from 14 to 76 and included a father and son. The spokesman added: ‘People can finally start to grieve.’
Card was hospitalised for mental health issues this summer and was hearing voices. He had recently split with his girlfriend and told doctors he thought people inside the bowling alley – which he regularly visited – ‘were saying bad things’ about him.
Katie O’Neill, his sister-in-law, said: ‘He was paranoid and had a manic belief everyone was against him.’
This week’s rampage was the tenth deadliest mass shooting in US history and the worst this year.