Trauma doctor describes 'shocking' injuries from shootings
Dr. Richard King, a trauma doctor at Central Maine Medical Center, described the “shocking” injuries he’s been treating in response to the Lewiston shootings, calling the wounds from “high velocity rounds” just “devastating.”
“I’ve never been deployed to a combat zone. I’ve never seen the wartime injuries that many of my colleagues have done who served prior, but these, the destructive power of these bullets is just really quite shocking,” King, who is also a Marine Corps Reserve trauma surgeon, told Jose Diaz-Balart on MSNBC.
He called the shooting “surreal” and noted that “you don’t really expect that this is going to happen, here in your community.”
“It’s ironic ... about two months ago, I was at an exercise in Wisconsin where we were practicing just exactly this — having to take care of mass casualties in a limited-resource environment, and that’s exactly what we were doing the other night,” he continued. “I think, fortunately, because not only in the military, but also the civilian world we practice this. And then when it all happens, we just do what we do to act like we do in our training.”
Officials say they're exploring river because of evidence found nearby
When asked by reporters if officials have any indication that suspect Robert Card may have killed himself and his body is in the river, officials said they are exploring all options.
"We clearly don’t have him located at this point. We don’t have him in custody. So all of those options are on the table. We certainly don’t want to wait too long because the river is a big piece of this," Michael Sauschuck, with Maine’s Department of Public Safety, said at today's briefing.
"The car was located there. Evidence was located in the vehicle right along the shores of Androscoggin River. So that’s stuff we want to make sure we’re checking," he added.
Note found during investigation, officials say
Officials confirmed Friday morning that a note was found during the search for suspect Robert Card, but they did not disclose its contents.
“There was a note at one of these residences. I'm not permitted to really talk about what that included,” said Michael Sauschuck, commissioner of Maine's Department of Public Safety. “So we’ll definitely continue to work on that, and when we can release it we certainly will.”
Officials punt questions on whether law enforcement failed to act under yellow flag law
The question-and-answer portion of today's morning briefing on the Lewiston shootings turned testy when reporters asked whether law enforcement had been warned about suspect Robert Card, and failed to act under the state's yellow flag law.
Maine’s yellow flag law outlines several steps that must be taken before a weapon can be removed from an individual by courts or law enforcement such as getting a medical practitioner evaluation to deem that person a threat.
It differs from red flags law, adopted in 21 states, which allow family or law enforcement to ask a court directly to temporarily remove guns from a person who may be at serious risk of harming themselves or another person with a firearm.
Michael Sauschuck, the commissioner of the Maine Department of Public Safety, said Friday: "I'm not gonna talk about who knew what and when," instead saying he'd focus on the search efforts.
When asked again if he could confirm there was a warning bell made to law enforcement, Sauschuck said, “I cannot,” to the uproar of reporters the room.
Investigators looking into over 500 tips
Michael Sauschuck, commissioner of the Maine Department of Public Safety, said Friday that investigators are working over 530 tips and leads that have poured in from the public since the shooting.
“As you can imagine, those vary greatly. We’re continuing to check those off the list as we go,” he said, noting many of those tips have been followed up on overnight.
Manhunt will include dive and air searches of Androscoggin River
The ongoing search for Robert Card will include dive teams and air searches of the Androscoggin River in the area where the suspect's car was found, Michael Sauschuck, commissioner of the Maine Department of Public Safety, said Friday.
The search will scour the area near the Lisbon boat launch where Card's white Subaru was found.
Sauschuck said aerial teams will search the waters from above, dive teams may use ROVs (remote operated vehicles) using sonar technology to look for shadows or movement, and officers will search the land in the area as well.
This is just one of the several search sites investigators will explore today.
ASL interpreter for Maine's pandemic briefings among those killed
Joshua Seal, one of the victims of the shootings that devastated Lewiston, was an ASL interpreter for Maine's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Covid-19 briefings during the pandemic.
The Pine Tree Society, which provides support and services for people with disabilities, said Seal was the organization’s director of interpreting services.
“He was a husband, a father of four and a tireless advocate for the Deaf community. He was committed to creating safe space for Deaf people and was widely known as the ASL interpreter for Dr. Shah’s pandemic briefings,” the statement said, referring to former director of Maine CDC Nirav D. Shah.
Officials to provide update at 10 a.m.
Lewiston officials will hold a news briefing at 10 this morning to provide updates on the search for Robert Card.
The manhunt for the 40-year-old suspect is ongoing.
'He died a hero': Grieving relatives honor their loved ones
Family members are voicing their heartbreak — and demanding justice for the 18 people killed in Lewiston.
The mother of Tricia Asselin, 53, said her daughter was shot while calling 911. She said she wants to hold her body one last time.
“Tricia didn’t deserve that. Nobody did. The man that did that has no soul. I pray to God he doesn’t do that to no more people. I hope they catch him soon,” Alicia Johnson-Lachance said in an interview on NBC’s “TODAY" Show.
Kim McConville says her cousin Bill Young and his 14-year-old son Aaron were also among the victims.
“They’re just innocent people after a night of bowling. This was a children’s event. Who expects a shooter to go into a children’s event?” McConville said.
Leroy Walker said his son Joey Walker, a manager at Schemengees Bar and Grille, “died as a hero.”
“He picked up a butcher knife and tried to go at the gunman to stop him from shooting anybody,” Walker told NBC’s Lester Holt. “That moment when I got the call that said Joey’s dead. It brought me right back to my knees.”
Father and son among victims
Bill Young and his 14-year-old son Aaron were shot and killed at the Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley, Bill’s brother Rob Young said. They were out for an evening with their bowling league, Rob Young said.
Before learning of their deaths, Rob Young had flown from Baltimore to Lewiston yesterday to help his sister-in-law in her frantic search for information after the pair had not been heard from since they went bowling.