Maine bowling alley targeted by mass shooter was hosting a youth league

The Maine bowling alley that was one of two locations targeted by a mass shooter on Wednesday night was hosting a children’s event at the time of the shooting, according to reports.

One mother at Sparetime Recreation, recently renamed to Just-In-Time Recreation, said she was at the bowling alley in Lewiston with her parents and her 11-year-old daughter who was competing in a youth league when the shots rang out just before 7 p.m.

Riley Dumont’s father, a retired police officer, hurried the family into a corner, where the mom laid over her daughter to shield her.

“I was laying on top of my daughter. My mother was laying on top of me,” Dumont told ABC News.

She told the station she saw three or four victims who had been shot.

Survivors who witnessed the deadly shootings were of “all ages,” Auburn Mayor Jason Levesque told reporters outside a reunification center set up in the town neighboring Lewiston.

Levesque said he had just spoken to some teenagers who made it out alive. Many of the survivors were in a state of shock, he added.

Police released a surveillance photo of a person of interest Robert Card, holding a gun as he enters the bowling Alley Wednesday evening.https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=734123235414313&id=100064499301811&ref=embed_post
Survivors who witnessed the deadly shootings were of “all ages,” Auburn Mayor Jason Levesque told reporters outside a reunification center set up in the town neighboring Lewiston. via REUTERS

The gunman killed at least seven people inside the bowling alley before he continued his deadly rampage four miles away at Schemengees Bar and Grille Restaurant, Androscoggin County Sheriff Eric Samson told the New York Times early Thursday.

Levesque said he was not aware of any children being among the fatal victims, but said he knows that at least one high school student was wounded, according to CNN.

Authorities have not released any official numbers of those dead and wounded, but police sources put the number of fatalities at 22. The carnage nearly matches Maine’s total number of homicides for all of last year.

There were 29 murders in Maine in all of 2022, according to State Department of Public Safety statistics cited by NBC News. 

Sparetime Recreation, recently renamed to Just-In-Time Recreation, was hosting a youth league on Wednesday when the shooting began.Maine Small Business Development Centers
A police car sits Sparetime Recreation, renamed Just-in-Time Recreation, on Wednesday, Oct. 25, following the mass shooting inside the bowling alley.Nichoel Wyman Arel via REUTERS

Police identified Robert Card, 40, as a “person of interest” in the shootings.

Card, who remained on the run early Thursday, is a trained firearms instructor with the Army Reserves, according to law enforcement sources in Maine.

He recently reported “hearing voices” and threatened to shoot up the Saco, ME base where he was stationed, according to the sources.

Card was committed to a mental health facility over the summer and was released after a two-week stay, the sources added.

A police officer stands guard on a street leading to the bowling alley in Lewiston, Maine on Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2023.CJ GUNTHER/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

His abandoned vehicle, a white Subaru Outback, was located by police about 8 miles away in Lisbon late Wednesday night, officials said.

Both Lisbon and Lewiston residents were warned by police to shelter in place and lock their doors as Card should be considered armed and dangerous.