A new report from the Department of Homeland Security contains frightening speculation that Lewiston shooter Robert Card may have been preparing some kind of “ambush” at the recycling center where his body was found. However, the report provides no concrete evidence that Card planned anything specific after the shootings.
In events that began shortly before 7 p.m. on October 25, 2023, Card, 40, of Bowdoin, used a rifle to kill 18 people and wound 13 others at Just In Time Recreation and Schemengee’s Bar and Grille. It was the worst mass shooting in Maine history.
He then fled, leaving his white Subaru Outback at a boat ramp in neighboring Lisbon.
Police combed the area for him for two days before finding him dead in a Maine Recycling Corp. trailer on Capital Avenue on October 27, 2023. He had sustained a gunshot wound and was about a mile from the boat ramp.
The Department of Homeland Security’s report, dated December 13, 2023, details federal agents’ efforts to investigate Card’s movements after the shootings to trace the exact route he took. Agents’ duties also included investigating the recycling center where Card had worked before the shootings.
According to the report, Department of Homeland Security agents searched the recycling center for video footage, citing comments from a person whose name was redacted.
According to the report, there were no cameras in the overflow parking lot where Card’s body was eventually found, a trailer park across from the main recycling center. The unnamed person told agents, “Card would have known there were no surveillance cameras in the overflow parking lot where Card’s body was discovered.”
Card’s body was found in one of the trailers along with two guns. According to the report, someone whose name is redacted told agents, “He believes Card specifically chose the semi-trailer where his body was found to set up an ambush.”
Other details were also redacted, but the report notes that company employees also parked in the parking lot, “and that the trailer containing Card’s body must have been within five meters of the employees who were parking their vehicles.”
The report does not reveal who exactly speculated about a possible ambush, nor does it say who specifically Card might have planned an ambush for, be it police officers or company employees.
MORE DETAILS
The rest of the report consists largely of agents’ attempts to find video surveillance footage that might show Card’s car on the street after the shooting.
Most of these attempts produced no useful results, except for a single video clip from River Road Agricultural, a business on River Road about three-quarters of a mile from Schemengee’s.
“A review of the footage revealed a possible sighting of the suspect vehicle passing south on River Road at approximately 7:12 p.m. or 7:12 p.m., the report states. Lincoln Street, which passes in front of Schemengee’s, merges with River Road south of the bar.
According to the independent investigation committee’s report, Card left Schemengee’s, the second shooting scene, at about 7:09 p.m., and the first officers arrived there at about 7:13 p.m.
Other evidence may have captured parts of the shooting on tape. Federal agents reported finding video footage from a surveillance camera above the garage of a duplex.
The address of the residence is not listed in the report, but it said agents found the duplex while conducting a vote count “from the second crime scene, Schmengee’s Bar, toward the boat ramp where the suspect’s vehicle was found.”
The duplex camera footage has timestamps that roughly match the time of the shootings, with the first clip beginning at around 6:57 p.m.
“Approximately six gunshots can be heard in the audio of the video,” the agents wrote. “In a second video from the same day, at 6:58 p.m., three gunshots can be heard. In a third video, timed at 7:01 p.m., four gunshots can be heard.”
The report contains no further evidence that Card or his actions were captured on video.
