Lewiston Police Chief David St. Pierre speaks during a press conference about the mass shooting on October 26, 2023 in Lewiston, Maine. Police are still searching for the suspect in the shooting, Robert Card, who allegedly killed 18 people in two separate locations on Wednesday night. (Photo by Scott Eisen/Getty Images)
OAN’s Brooke Mallory
11:31 AM – Thursday, October 26, 2023
According to his sister-in-law, the suspect in the Maine shooting, Robert Card, was having a mental health crisis and told his family members that he heard people talking about him inside the bar and bowling alley where he is suspected of opening fire on Wednesday.
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“He truly believed he was hearing people say things. This all just happened within the last few months,” said Katie O’Neill, who is married to Card’s brother.
“I have known Rob my whole life. He is quiet but the most loving, hardworking, and kind person that I know. But in the past year, he had an acute episode of mental health,” O’Neill added.
Following the Wednesday night rampage at the Just-in-Time Recreation bowling alley and Schemengees Bar and Grille in Lewiston, a fugitive warrant has been issued for the arrest of 40-year-old Card.
Following the incident, authorities verified that at least 13 people were injured and 18 people were killed.
According to O’Neill, Card even began wearing “powerful hearing aids” in the days before the shooting in order to better hear his hallucinations.
“He would get mad and claim that we didn’t believe him. We tried to listen to him and tell him that nobody was talking about him… Yesterday, as the story was unfolding, we prayed that Rob had nothing to do with this. But when we heard the two places where the shooting happened, my husband rushed home.”
Based on the corpses that have been identified thus far, Card, an Army Reservist who spent two weeks in a mental health hospital this summer after claiming to hear voices, is now charged with eight counts of murder in connection with the shooting, according to information released by law authorities during a news conference on Thursday.
Col. William Ross of the Maine State Police warned that he is “armed and dangerous” and has now been missing for more than 16 hours.
With the assistance of state and federal authorities, the manhunt is still ongoing, and residents of Lewiston, Auburn, and other nearby cities are under a shelter-in-place order as of Thursday.
O’Neill told the press that Card is being urged to give himself up by his relatives.
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