Documents reveal horror of Maine's deadliest mass shooting

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Thousands of pages of Maine Department of Public Safety documents released Friday include detailed descriptions of the chaos and carnage surrounding the the state's deadliest mass shooting.

Officers arrived at two shooting scenes in Lewiston last October, unsure if the shooter was still there, and with living and dead victims on the ground. One officer described desperate survivors screaming for help as he searched for the shooter.

“They grab our legs and try to stop us, but we can’t help them,” wrote Officer Keith Caouette of Lewiston. “We have to move on and keep looking and hope they are alive when we get back.”

Another police officer's first instinct was that an act of domestic terrorism had been committed, highlighted by the heavy police presence and flashing blue lights. “I really felt like we were at war,” wrote Auburn Lt. Steven Gosselin.

Their descriptions of the scenes at a bowling alley and bar and grill where 18 people were killed and 13 others injured were included in more than 3,000 pages of documents released Friday in response to Freedom of Access Act requests from The Associated Press and other news organizations. .

Associated Press journalists had reviewed more than a third of the pages before the website containing the documents went down Friday afternoon. State officials said the documents would be available again Monday.

Among the details included in the report were the words of a note left by the shooter, 40-year-old Army reservist Robert Card, who wrote that he just wanted “to be left alone.” said the Portland Press Herald. reported. The note also contained the password to his phone and the passwords needed to access his various accounts.

The shooter's family and fellow Army reservists reported that he suffered a nervous breakdown in the months leading up to the Oct. 25, 2023, shooting. Subsequently, the Legislature passed new gun laws for Maine which strengthened the state's “yellow flag” law, criminalized the transfer of firearms to prohibited persons, and increased funding for crisis mental health care.

Card's body was found two days after the shooting in the back of a tractor-trailer on his former employer's property near Lisbon. The autopsy concluded that he committed suicide.

The documents released Friday provide first-hand accounts from the officers about what they saw as well as additional details about the massive search for Card and the investigation.

At the summit, the law enforcement presence was immense with 16 SWAT teams and officers from 14 different agencies, as well as eight additional helicopters and planes, as well as an underwater recovery team, the police lieutenant wrote. State Tyler Stevenson.

“I have experienced several large-scale manhunts during my career, but this was, by far, the largest manhunt I have been involved in,” he said. writing.

Agents used lasers to map filming scenes, searched Tracfone purchases at Walmart in case Card had a burner phone and even scraped data from the infotainment system in Card's Subaru.

Police recovered hundreds of potential pieces of evidence from several locations, including cartridges and bullet fragments, phones, hair, fibers, gas pedal pads, a handwritten letter, a tomahawk knife, arrows, a hearing aid, broken glasses, a blue sneaker, a black chain necklace, bean bags, various military files, $255 in cash and a night vision monocular.

The documents highlight the confusion as police officers flocked to the area. In addition to the two crime scenes, police responded to unfounded reports of a gunman in a field near the scene of the shooting, at another restaurant and at a massive Walmart distribution center.

“I asked who was responsible and got no answer,” Androscoggin County Deputy Jason Chaloux wrote, describing the scene outside the bar.

Chief Paul Ferland of the Monmouth Police Department said that when he arrived in Lisbon hours after the shooting, 60 to 70 officers were “waiting” for instructions that never arrived. A member of the U.S. Marshals Service told him he hadn't received any updates and would begin following up on his own leads.

Ferland said he got more information from reporters outside the hospital than from law enforcement and withdrew his officers early in the morning because of concerns for their safety.

“It became apparent to me that there was a lack of communication between the agencies and that no one knew what was going on,” he wrote.

Others described the horrific scenes inside the bowling alley and bar and grill. Cell phones ringing on bloody tables, tablecloths and a pool table cover transformed into makeshift stretchers.

“A quick scan of the building revealed blood and flesh scattered throughout the business,” Lewiston Detective Zachary Provost wrote of the bowling alley. “I could also smell the strong smell of gunpowder mixed with burning flesh.”

Caouette, the Lewiston officer who went to the bar and grill, said some witnesses shouted that the shooter was still in the building when he arrived, while others said he had already left. He told a man lying on the ground to “hang on,” but by the time he got back to him, the man was dead.

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This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Keith Caouette's name.

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Ramer reported from Concord, New Hampshire. Associated Press writer Steve LeBlanc contributed from Boston.