Fugitive Maine mass shooter Robert Card may have changed his appearance and could use his military experience to evade detection and plot another attack, law enforcement experts told AlertContent.com.
The 40-year-old remained at large on Thursday afternoon after murdering 18 people and injuring more than a dozen others on Wednesday night. A massive manhunt is underway involving hundreds of law enforcement officers from multiple states.
Card, a US Army Reserve soldier, launched the initial attack at a bowling alley in Lewiston at around 6.56pm then struck again at bar and restaurant about four miles away just 12 minutes later.
His car was found abandoned in the nearby town of Lisbon several hours later and he has avoided detection since. Police say he is armed and dangerous.
Marko Galbreath, a former Florida police sergeant and SWAT team member, told AlertContent.com that Card could have traveled anywhere – and the whole country must be vigilant.
Card, a US Army reserve soldier, launched the initial attack at a bowling alley (pictured) at around 6.56pm then struck again at bar and restaurant four miles away just 12 minutes later
The 40-year-old remained at large on Thursday afternoon after murdering 18 people and injuring more than a dozen others on Wednesday night
‘He could still be in that area, planning to have a shootout with police, planning to commit suicide, planning to commit another attack. Or, you know what, he could be in Texas right now. We have no idea.
‘If he planned it out well enough, he could very well be far from that area right now,’ said Galbreath, who provides active shooter response training through his company T4Tactics.
‘We need to tell the entire country that until this guy is captured, we need to use due diligence.’
He added: ‘He could have shaved, he could have put on a wig, he may change his appearance. He he may not look like what people think he looks like, so we need to really watch.’
Galbreath added that Card’s military training would have also provided a survival ‘skillset and mindset’ which would have taught how to ‘live in an environment that’s not comfortable’.
Card is believed to have joined the military reserve in 2002. A bulletin sent to police across the country after the attack said Card had been committed to a mental health facility for two weeks this past summer after ‘hearing voices and threats to shoot up’ a military base.
A US official said Card was training with the Army Reserve’s 3rd Battalion, 304th Infantry Regiment in West Point, New York, when commanders became concerned about him.
Galbreath said Card’s history of mental illness meant he could have taken his own life somewhere secluded to ‘keep the fear going’ among the public.
A police tactical unit makes its way down a street during the search for mass-shooting suspect Robert Card in Lisbon Falls, Maine, USA, 26 October 2023
Law enforcement outside the home of suspected shooter Robert Card in Bowdoin, Maine, where a search warrant was executed on October 26, 2023
Robert Carlson, a law enforcement officer and firearms instructor who founded the Brave Defender Training Group in Memphis, told AlertContent.com that Card’s military history means he has ‘the same, if not even a possibly higher level of, training and experience as the responding officers’.
‘It does most significantly add an increased level of danger when you have somebody that has some sort of level of training or familiarity with tactics and weapons,’ he said.
Carlson said it is important law enforcement provide information so that ‘that the public is aware of not only their risk, but also so that they can aid law enforcement in attempting to identify or spot that individual’.
The search has included forests, waterways and small towns around the rural areas in Maine where the shootings took place.
Schools, doctor’s offices and grocery stores closed and people stayed behind locked doors in cities as far away as 50 miles from the scenes of the shootings.
Police said they have had no reported sightings of Card since the shootings at Sparetime Recreation bowling alley and Schemengees Bar and Grille about four miles away.
A search warrant was carried out at his home on Thursday and reportedly uncovered a note. His sister reportedly also told police that he may have been searching for his ex-wife, who filed for divorce in 2007.
Card’s car (pictured) was found abandoned in the nearby town of Lisbon several hours later and he has avoided detection since. Police say he is armed and dangerous
ewiston Police Chief David St. Pierre speaks during a press conference about the mass shooting on October 26, 2023 in Lewiston, Maine
The Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Office released two photos of the suspect walking into the bowling alley with a rifle raised to his shoulder.
Maine Gov. Janet Mills promised to do whatever was needed to find Card and to ‘hold whoever is responsible for this atrocity accountable … and to seek full justice for the victims and their families.’
‘We are not, and we will not, rest in this endeavor,’ she said.
Eight murder warrants were issued for Card after authorities identified eight of the victims, police said. Ten more will likely be issued once the names of the rest of the dead are confirmed, said Maine State Police Col. William Ross.
Three of the 13 people wounded in the shootings were in critical condition and five were hospitalized but stable, Central Maine Medical Center officials said.
Former FBI agent Brad Garrett Brad Garrett told ABC News: ‘Anytime you have somebody on the loose that’s committed this atrocious act is a big deal, because you don’t know what’s in his mind; if he’s mentally unstable, if paranoid delusions are still driving him if that’s accurate, would he then seek another location?
‘Or has he given up and actually shot himself – we just don’t know that, but it is really important to locate him whether he’s dead or alive.’