The suicide note of Maine’s deadliest mass shooter has been revealed as part of the release of 3,000 files which lay bare horrifying details of the attack.
Robert Card killed 18 and left 13 injured during the rampage at a Lewiston bowling alley and bar in October last year.
The spree sparked a huge manhunt for Card, 40, who was found dead in a trailer two days after the carnage.
Now his handwritten final words have been released, showing his anguished state of mind.
‘Don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story,’ Card wrote. ‘I guess I just wanted to play cornhole with my hot girlfriend and be left the (expletive) alone.’
The suicide note of Maine ‘s deadliest mass shooter has been revealed as part of the release of 3,000 files which lay bare horrifying details of the attack
Robert Card killed 18 and left 13 injured during the rampage at a Lewiston bowling alley and bar in October last year
Card had recently been dumped by his partner who was supposed to be playing in a bowling league at the same alley he opened fire on, according to an FBI profile included in the tranche, the Boston Globe reports.
The profile states she was not there at the time of the attack, ‘but easily could have been’.
The documents also revealed harrowing information about the immediate aftermath of the attack as officers in hot pursuit of the suspect described having to walk past dying victims as they begged for help.
‘They grab at our legs and try to stop us and we can not help them,’ wrote Lewiston Officer Keith Caouette. ‘We have to walk by and continue to search and hope they are alive when we come back around.’
He told one man lying on the floor to ‘hang in there,’ but by the time he returned to him, the man had died.
Another police officer’s first instinct was that an act of domestic terrorism had been committed, underscored by the heavy police presence and flashing blue lights.
‘I truly felt like we were at war,’ Auburn Lt. Steven Gosselin wrote.
Others described the horrific scenes inside the bowling alley and bar and grill.
Card killed 18 people in the massacre (pictured), in what has become Maine’s deadliest mass shooting
One police officer’s first instinct was that an act of domestic terrorism had been committed
Cellphones rang on bloodied tabletops as tablecloths and a pool table cover turned into makeshift stretchers.
‘A quick scan of the building revealed blood and flesh scattered throughout the business,’ Lewiston Detective Zachary Provost wrote of the bowling alley.
‘I also could smell the heavy odor of gunpowder mixed with burning flesh.’
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At the peak, the law enforcement presence was immense with 16 SWAT team and officers from 14 different agencies, along with eight helicopters and additional airplanes, and an underwater recovery team, wrote state police Lt. Tyler Stevenson.
‘I have experienced several large-scale manhunts in my career, but this was, by far, the largest manhunt I have been a part of,’ he wrote.
Officers used lasers to map the shooting scenes, searched Tracfone purchases at a Walmart in the event Card had a burner phone and even retrieved data from the infotainment system of Card’s Subaru.
Someone who played cornhole with the shooter spoke with police about Card, describing him as ‘in his own little world, but not in a bad or awkward way.’
Card was an Army reservist who had been acting increasingly erratically in the months leading up to the shooting.
A law enforcement official mans a checkpoint next to the Sparetime Recreation, one of two locations the mass shooter targeted
On September 16, police tried to speak to Card at home but got no answer. They failed to enact the state’s ‘yellow flag’ laws which enable officers to remove guns from vulnerable individuals.
In March a state commission found this to be a clear failure, although Sagadahoc Sheriff Joel Merry insists his team acted appropriately based on the information they had.
By October 19, Card had started hearing voices, according to one report from a person working at a store he delivered bread to.
The report said Card knew the voices were talking about him and ‘maybe you will be the ones I snap on’.
In addition to the chaotic scene in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, police also had to contend with pranksters hindering their investigation.
This included false tips and one person claiming to be Card by speaking through an audio filter on TikTok.
The trove of documents were published on Friday before the website crashed. Officials in Maine said they should be available again by 5pm Monday.