Police authorities reported that Robert Card, the suspect in last Wednesday's massacre in the U.S. state of Lewiston, Maine, was found dead Friday evening.
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The suspect accused of killing 18 people had been on the run for 48 hours since the night of the shooting. Hundreds of agents were mobilized in the search operation.
According to authorities, Card's body was found at 19:45 local time (23:45 GMT) on Friday in a wooded area in the town of Lisbon, near the Androscoggin River in Lisbon Falls, about 12 kilometers from the town where the massacre occurred.
Police reported that he allegedly shot himself to death after being found with "an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound."
Card, 40, a member of the U.S. Army Reserve who previously worked as a firearms' instructor, allegedly opened fire at a restaurant and bowling alley last Wednesday, killing 18 people and wounding 13 others.
A warrant was issued for Card's arrest on eight counts of murder, Maine State Police said Thursday. Following the suspect's death, local authorities rescinded the shelter-in-place order for neighboring communities.
According to the Maine Center for Information and Analysis, Card recently suffered from mental problems, which were accompanied by "threats of shootings at the National Guard base in Saco (Maine)." He is also on record as having spent two weeks in a mental health facility last summer before being released.
U.S. President Joe Biden spoke with Maine authorities to offer support in the wake of the deadly shooting and ordered all flags in the country lowered to half-staff until next Monday to honor the victims, the White House said Thursday.
Wednesday's massacre was the 565th shooting in the U.S. in 2023 and the deadliest so far this year, according to the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive (GVA).
Maine, a northeastern state of about 1.3 million people, has one of the lowest homicide rates in the country, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).