Maine State Police Hold Press Conference After Shootings Transcript

No, we didn't. Aaron, as you mentioned, the Public Safety Commissioner declining to even say how many people had been killed, referring to it as a very fluid situation, and that's certainly been this case all morning. You mentioned the fact that most of the people are staying at home and staying in place, honoring that shelter in place order. (12:31) On our drive here from Lisbon, we were over there where that car was found that they believed belongs to Robert Card. The car was gone. There was some yellow crime scene tape up there. But it seems that the search for the person of interest as authorities are referring to him, has moved on from at least that point. (12:51) One thing I should mention too, there are a number of out-of-state agencies that are assisting Maine Police in their search for this person of interest. We did notice several New Hampshire State Police vehicles that came down the road there. So they're very active in this search. And, of course, the governor talked about New Hampshire State Police also lending their helicopter to the search. Sean and Catherine, that's the situation. And again, any minute now, we should have or any second now, we expect the governor of Maine and other officials to be here. She's entering the city council chambers now.

[inaudible 00:14:07] the night. As you all know, last night, local county, state and federal law enforcement offices from around the state of Maine responded to reports of an active shooter at several locations in Lewiston, including [inaudible 00:14:26] recreation, and [inaudible 00:14:29]. And these large enforcement officers in the face of danger responded swiftly, selflessly, and with great bravery. Bravery that they continue to demonstrate today as they search tirelessly for the person of interest interventionally. (14:50) On behalf of all Maine people, I express my deep gratitude for your response and for your continued service. I also do so for Maine's hospitals and other medical emergency responders. I'm profoundly saddened to stand before you today to report that 18 people lost their lives and 13 people injured in last night's attacks. In memory of those we lost and in honor of those who were injured, President Biden and I have ordered all US flags and state of Maine flags to be lowered to half staff immediately for the next five days. (15:41) Maine State Police have issued a shelter in place order for Lewiston, Lisbon, and Bowdoin as the manhunt for that person of interest, Robert Card of Bowdoin continues. I will let law enforcement speak to the ongoing manhunt and to their investigation, but Mr. Card is considered armed and dangerous, and police advise that Maine people should not approach him under any circumstances. (16:13) I continue to strongly urge Maine people to follow the direction of state and local law enforcement amid this ever-changing situation. Please, if you see anything suspicious, please call 911. There are still many things we don't yet know about these attacks, but the full weight of my administration is behind law enforcement's efforts to capture the person of interest, Robert Card, to hold whoever's responsible for this atrocity accountable under the full force of state and federal law, and to seek full justice for the victims and their families. We cannot and we will not rest in this endeavor. (17:09) My administration is coordinating closely with local, regional, and federal officials to respond to this shooting. I have spoken twice with President Biden. I've spoken with Vice President Harris, Secretary of Homeland Security in my office and Secretary of Health and Human Services, Becerra, all of whom have called me last night to express the Biden administration's full and unwavering support and to offer any and all help that we, the people of Maine might require. (17:48) The governors of our neighboring New England states and of other states have contacted me to offer a ... and I'm sincerely grateful for their friendship and support. We've been in touch with every member of the Maine congressional delegation, all of whom have offered their full support, for which I'm also grateful. (18:11) I also spoke with Mayor Carl Sheline and Auburn Mayor, excuse me, Jason Levesque last night to reiterate that we are standing by them and that we are ready to provide any help people in these communities need and to deploy all available state resources, including grief counselors and other mental health services we need to help our communities heal. (18:40) If you or a person you love need someone to talk to during this difficult time, please call or text 988 for free and confidential counseling. 988. Look, Lewiston is a special place. It's a close-knit community with a long history of hard work, of persistence, of faith, of opening his big heart to people everywhere. Lewiston is where I worked for years. It's where I met and married my husband and where our girls went to school. I love this place just as I love our whole state with my entire heart. I'm so deeply saddened as is every one of the 1.3 million people of this beautiful state. This city did not deserve this terrible assault on its citizens, on its peace of mind, on its sense of security. No city does no state, no people. (19:53) No words can truly or fully measure the grief of Maine people. Today, our small state of just 1.3 million people has long been known as one of the safest states in the nation. This attack strikes at the very heart of who we are and the values we hold dear for this precious place we call home. All Maine people are sharing in the sorrow of the families who lost loved ones last night, loved ones, normal people who were killed or injured while unwinding from a day of work or while spending time with your family and friends, socializing. (20:38) So on behalf of the 1.3 million people of the whole state of Maine, I hold these families and this city in my heart today. I know that the people of Lewiston are enduring immeasurable pain. I wish I could take their pain off your hearts, off your shoulders, but I promise you this, we will all help you carry that grief. (21:07) I ask Maine people to join me in offering our comfort to the families and friends who have lost someone and in offering our prayers for swift recovery for those who are healing in Maine's hospitals today. This is a dark day for Maine. I know it's hard for us to think about healing when our hearts are broken, but I want every person in Maine to know that we will heal together. We are strong, we are resilient. We are a very caring people. (21:49) In the days and weeks ahead, we will need to lean on those qualities more than ever before. As we move forward, struggling

... struggling as we may, let us wrap our arms around one another, offer comfort and solace and love. I know the Maine State Police will continue to release information to the public as we confirm it, and information about any steps that the public might take to support the people of Lewiston at this time. (22:25) May God bless the people of Lewiston and bless the memories of those we have lost. Thank you. I'm going to turn it over to Commissioner Sauschuck.

Thank you very much, Governor. We certainly appreciate your support. The City of Lewiston does, the State of Maine and certainly our first responders. We feel that love every day and thank you very much for that. (22:51) I would also say that we want to say thank you to, really, a large number of other elected officials across our state, whether that's the federal delegation, local elected officials, and many others that are part of organizations or law enforcement agencies that truly wanted to join us today at this particular press event and wanted to speak on behalf of their communities. (23:14) And as the Governor had mentioned, and everybody else will reiterate, our reality for today is that this suspect is still that large and we want to provide community support for the victims, for the families in the communities across the state. But we also have an incredibly strong laser-like focus on bringing this suspect into custody and ultimately to justice. So because of that mission for this particular event and today's activities, we're keeping the list of speakers and the agenda pretty tight, and that will include next up at the podium would be Chief Dave St. Pierre from the City of Lewiston. And some other members of his command staff are present. (24:01) What I will say to the City of Lewiston, and this because you feel it every day, but you're lucky to have a chief like Chief St. Pierre and his entire law enforcement agency. From every level those officers put their heart and their soul on the line on behalf of their community last night and into today, and they're doing it for the right reasons. They do it because they care. So the City of Lewiston and truly our co-responder family across the State of Maine is lucky to have Dave and his team in the mix with us. (24:33) And we're also going to hear from Colonel William Ross from the Maine State Police and Bill will highlight some of the timeline things that you're probably concerned about and certainly interested in from a story perspective. So the colonel will come up and speak to that. And we'll also have Jodi Cohen and Jodi is the special agent in charge for the FBI out of the Boston Field Office. And Jodi will highlight some of those federal partnerships and some of the things that our federal partners are bringing to the table, bringing to bear to help us with this investigation. (25:08) We also have a bunch of people here. Once you start naming people, you're going to have a problem because you're going to forget somebody or screw something up. But I would also tell you that a couple of our other federal partners are here. Kevin Neal, he was the US Marshal for the District of Maine. We also have James Ferguson, and Jim is a special agent in charge from the ATF for the Boston Field Division. They are heavily invested with staff along with the FBI, and we can't thank them enough for all that they're doing on behalf of our state. (25:37) I would also tell you that we are going to close with a brief Q&A and we're going to try to get some of those questions out there. We appreciate your time, your patience, your professionalism, your partnership, getting this information out. I would think that those questions are going to be brief because again, we do have a suspect at large. And while you can help us with that, we also need to get back to our team to push forward on that. So with that in mind, I will be back up to the podium to kind of steer that a little bit. But for starters, I would like Chief St. Pierre to join us.

Thank you. Thank you, Director Sauschuck and welcome media partners and thank you Governor Mills for those kind words. I'm going to keep this short. (26:18) What I would like the very most is to express our deepest sympathies to the families and friends of the victims of this heinous crime. This is truly a tragedy that goes beyond comprehension. I'm confident in our community, that our community has and will continue to come together throughout this endeavor to bring this to a successful conclusion, although difficult, I do ask the public to continue to be mindful of their own personal safety and also that they be patient with the process as much as possible. There is extensive work and attention to detail that goes into such a large scale investigation. I'm confident in the expertise and professionalism of our investigators and all law enforcement officials that are currently involved. (27:02) This is an all hands-on deck approach, we have a great deal of collaboration and resources that have been made available to us. There are far too many to name individually, but I think Director Sauschuck named quite a few appropriately. There are far too many as I've stated, but they're all appreciated more than you know. (27:22) I want to thank all of our brave men and women of the Lewiston Police Department, fire department staff, medical personnel, first responders of any kind that came from far and wide and have come together and continue to work tirelessly in bringing the situation to an end. We hope to locate and hold the person accountable. (27:41) I think you'll hear next from the state police who is taking the lead in this investigation. Although that we are working hand in hand with them, I think Colonel Ross will be able to fill you in on a little bit more.

Thank you, Chief. First and foremost, this is an ongoing homicide investigation and search for the person that is responsible for it. We're in the early stages of this investigation and I just want to let you know we will have updates. We'll be putting some type of a schedule out later on. But again, early stages of a homicide investigation, we want to be careful that we're doing things correctly. We want to get ahead of ourselves. (28:27) I'm going to give you a bit of a timeline here to kind of fill in some of the blanks and give you some of the facts as we know them right now. A lot of this information will then be transferred to the Attorney General's Office as they'll be the lead prosecutor again in any homicide investigation. (28:44) Last night, October 25th at approximately 6:56 PM the Auburn Communication Center received a 911 call of a male shooting in Just-In-Time or the Spare Time Recreation Center in the Town of Lewiston, located at 24 Mollison Way in Lewiston. Shortly after that at about 7:08 PM the communication center received multiple 911 calls about an active shooter inside of a Schemengees billiards at 553 Lincoln Street in the Town of Lewiston. A large law enforcement response from multiple surrounding agencies assisted the Lewiston Police Department in trying to identify who this individual was and what was happening. As you can imagine, this was a very fast-paced, fast moving, very fluid scene, very dangerous scene that these guys and girls were going into. (29:48) 18 people are now deceased at this time. The victims at the Just-In-Time establishment, seven people are deceased there, one female and six males, all from an apparent gunshot wound. Victims at the Schemengees billiards, eight are deceased. Seven males inside the establishment. One male outside of the establishment. Again, also apparent gunshot wounds. Multiple people will transferred to area hospitals, Central Maine Medical Center, St. Mary's and Maine Medical Center. Three people that were transferred to those hospitals are deceased, for a total of 18 people deceased at this time. (30:42) The investigation into the person responsible for this identified a vehicle located at the Pejepscot boat landing in Lisbon. That person, through the registration of that, that vehicle was identified. It's been stated earlier as a Robert Card born in 1983. Several of the deceased have been identified and their families' next of kin have been notified. Approximately 8 people at this point have been identified. 10 people, 10 of these victims still need to be identified at this time. Currently, there is an arrest warrant for 8 counts of murder for Mr. Card. And the reason it's 8 counts because 10 people have not yet been identified. As those people are identified, the counts will probably go to the total of 18. (31:40) He should be considered armed and dangerous. Based on our investigation we believe this is someone that should not be approached. If you come into any contact with this individual or someone that you think looks like this individual, you were to call 911. And I'll provide some tip line numbers at the conclusion of my briefing. (32:02) Lewiston Police Department, federal, state, county, and other local municipalities are involved in a coordinated search at this moment for this individual. So there's the ongoing investigation and there's a search to apprehend this person both happened simultaneously. I can't stress this enough. This is an ongoing investigation in the early stages. More information will come out in conjunction with the Attorney General's Office as the lead prosecutor. We can't share all of our information right now and I'm sure you understand that. (32:36) I'm going to give out two numbers that go to a tip line. 911 is also appropriate for this, but if anyone can call these two numbers, this would go to the state police tip line. Area code 207-213-9526, 207-509-9002.

And we'll be sending something out later that has that information in it if you weren't able to grab that now. Again, this is a very fluid situation. We have a lot of resources, as Chief Zapier had mentioned earlier, that are on the ground in a coordinated effort to apprehend this individual. We've notified the Department of Education and they have determined what they're going to do with the schools. A lot of area schools were shut down today based on our conversation with them. Again, as more information comes in, we'll be providing it to you. Thank you for your time. This is a very difficult time for I think the community of Lewiston. Difficult time for obviously the victim's families and it's a tough time for law enforcement. It was a rough night last night, but we're committed to bringing whoever's responsible to justice. And again, we are currently looking for Mr. Card right now, someone we'd like to apprehend. Thank you.

Thank you, Colonel. And FBI special agent in charge, if you could join me, please.

Thank you. My name is Jody Cohen. I'm the special agent in charge of FBI Boston Division, which covers the state of Maine. Our hearts go out to everyone who is impacted as a result of the senseless violence. The FBI is working hand in hand with our law enforcement partners. Our evidence response team is here processing these very extensive scenes. We are providing investigative and tactical support as well as our victim specialists are working with those affected by this tragedy. As this very active investigation continues to unfold, we're asking the public to stay vigilant and come forward with any information that you might have that you feel is helpful to our investigators. My pledge is that the FBI will carry out this investigative case with rigor. We'll work day and night alongside our law enforcement partners to get the answers to the questions this community deserves. We thank the public for your continued cooperation and patience as we continue to work this very active investigation. Thank you.

I appreciate that. And I would say that the reality here from a resource standpoint is that when we've asked for anything, the answer has been yes, period. Tactical teams, evidence response teams, full-blown investigative units, detective units that have come from multiple states, whether it's the commissioners from Vermont and New Hampshire reaching out to me directly, Massachusetts saying, "What do you need, Mike? What can we do for the state of Maine?" So we are now prepared to try to take a few questions and keep in mind again that we may not be able to answer as in depth as you would like and we don't plan on taking a great deal of questions. I think follow up press events will allow for that. Sir?

So no one has really talked about the weapon that was used here, AR style. So hope someone can talk about that. But the other thing here is there are reports that this individual had mental health issues, that he made threats to shoot up the National Guard. So clearly there were some signs there that he was on someone's radar. The question becomes why was he in possession of this weapon and certainly why wasn't he stopped sooner?

Yeah, I think those are all valid questions and certainly questions that we are looking into now, but not questions that we can answer today. Considering that this occurred last night, there's still an active search for the suspect in question, so I appreciate those questions but not something we're going to be able to answer right now.

Is it something that you're investigating and looking-

It is certainly one of those things that we want to follow up on. All aspects of that. Go ahead. Right here. Yes.

Can you give us a sense of the ages of who has died? How many are under 18 and how many are over 18?

I'm not sure we have that information with us today. We wanted to break it down by gender because that's something we had readily available. We did not break this down in the age ranges at all.

Sir, what can you tell us us about the background of the suspect in this case? I should say the person of interest because I noticed the language is very clear, the second person of interest, not suspect. So why use that terminology and what can you tell us about his background?

Yeah, I think we used person of interest last night for half of the room that was here for that press event. As the colonel had mentioned, there is now arrest warrants for murder for this particular individual, Mr. Card. So he's viewed as a suspect and there is a full court press by all of our partners to bring him into custody. What was the second piece of that question?

What can you tell us about his background? Somebody asked a second ago about the idea that he had voiced concerns about his own mental health, right? Had been committed according to language and police bulletin to a mental health facility for weeks. How could someone that fits that profile still be in possession of semi-automatic weapons?

Well, I do think that the statutes around firearms and the possession of those are pretty complex. I know that we will be reviewing that information as we move forward, but that's not an answer that we're prepared to give today because that leads to motive. You're talking about behavioral health issues and how that impacts this situation. I would expect you'll hear back from us on that in the future. Right here.

I've got a question about, we've seen helicopters as far north as [inaudible 00:38:39]. Can you tell us anything about what's leading you that far north of the scene where you [inaudible 00:38:45]?

Yeah, sure. So we have law enforcement assets that are deployed over a number of communities doing follow-ups on a number of different things. So as you can imagine, there's a great deal of search warrants that we're following up on. We do have partners that helicopters from the New Hampshire State Police that copter was here last night to assist us as well. So whether we have tactical elements out or we're searching an area, some of those air assets would be very, very valuable for us. So that's what they're doing.

That's what's leading you there?

We're not going to speak to what brings us to a specific community one way or the other. Yes ma'am. Right here.

[inaudible 00:39:16] identifying the unidentified victims. What are people encouraged to do? Is there DNA being tested from family members who may have missing loved ones? What's that approach right now?

Yeah, so we did have a family or reunification center open last night. We do have behavioral health liaisons that are fully engaged to work with families and work with loved ones and work with victims for that matter that may be in the hospital and seeking treatment. So those things are actively occurring. We're dealing with each one of those situations separately. So do we need DNA on that? Are we just waiting to find a loved one, some kind of family member that we can make a notification? I think that varies across the board. I'm going to take two more questions. Take two more right here.

Was there some sort of triggering event? Is that something that you're investigating?

I think we're always concerned around motive. That you say triggering event, that's a motive for us. Again, that's not something we're prepared to discuss today, but I do appreciate the question. It's clearly something that's important. One additional follow up from you.

Can you help us understand why these locations, why this bar? Why this bowling alley? Was he looking for someone? Was he looking for something?

I think that does speak to motive, so I appreciate the follow-up, but not something we're going to be prepared to answer today. I'll have one more question right here. Right here.

Can you say is Card first off to clarify with the arrest warrants issued today and can you say if Card is still in the state or even still alive?

Well, we're actively searching for them. If I knew the answers to those questions, than this would be a different press conference, I would assume. So we don't know his location and I'll leave it at that. And we are working with the Attorney General's office in reference to those. So with that in mind, we're done taking questions for now, so we are going to actually take off at this point. Thank you very much for being here. I appreciate that.

Thank you everybody.

Have there been any credible sightings? We've not really gotten many answers.

Thank you.