PORTLAND, Maine – Callers who dialed 911 after Maine's deadliest mass shooting described hiding behind trees, scrambling to find their glasses, searching for loved ones and fearing for their lives as shots rang out first at a bowling alley, then minutes later at a bar.
Transcripts of the 911 calls from the Oct. 25 shooting released Monday show the chaotic aftermath of the shooting that left 18 people dead, with dispatchers providing encouragement to callers worried about the shooter's whereabouts. The calls capture tense moments, including one caller who described hiding under a pool table next to someone who was injured and bleeding.
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The calls also include dispatchers telling survivors to wait for police to announce their arrival.
“Just keep those around you as quiet as possible. If you hear the police announce themselves, make yourselves known, but otherwise I want you to stay down and stay quiet, OK?” one dispatcher said in the transcripts, released in response to a Freedom of Access Act request by The Associated Press and other news organizations.
One of the 911 calls came from someone whose child was hit in the arm. “Shooter. There’s a shooter,” the caller said. “I have a kid. He’s bleeding.” Another caller reported grabbing a 4-year-old and running. Another simply implored, “Please hurry.” Another person appeared to be counseling someone who was injured while on the phone, saying: “Pray, pray. You’re OK. You’re OK. Trying to look for something clean. My coat is the only thing.”
According to the transcripts, there were 50 911 calls in little more than 50 minutes to two dispatch centers operated by Lewiston-Auburn and Androscoggin County. One additional call was made later to the Cumberland County dispatch with a caller identifying the gunman after the photo was released.
The documents show people began identifying the shooter soon after the photo was released to the public. But there was also much confusion - one caller explained to a dispatcher that they did not know if someone trying to get into the building was the shooter or police, and survivors inside were terrified.
“Find out because they’re trying to get in and we’re scared,” the caller said.
Another person said they'd made it to the river behind Schemengees, the bar where the shooting continued, but they didn’t know where the shooter was.
“I’m blind,” the person said.
The operator said to get out of the area immediately. “I – I can’t. I’m blind,” the person repeated. “I lost my glasses. There’s some other people here. I don’t know if they’re bystanders or the shooter.”
Another person who fled the bar described hiding behind trees.
“I’m at Schemengees in Lewiston. There’s a shooting. There’s a live shooting,” one caller said. The operator asks if the person is safe. “I’m safe. I’m behind the trees, but we don’t know where the shooter is. We need help,” the person said.
About two hours after the bowling alley shooting, one caller said they saw a picture of the suspect online and correctly identified him as Robert Card of Bowdoin. The caller described Card’s deteriorating mental health state as known to the community, saying he had recently kicked his family out of his house and “they’re basically estranged and he’s just not been well.”
The caller’s name is redacted, but their statements support previously released police and military statements about Card’s mental health state and potential danger to the community. The caller went on to state that Card was known to have firearms in his house, and that the sheriff’s department had previously been contacted about his behavior and mental health.
“We’ve just been really concerned about his mental health lately,” the person said.
Ben Gideon, an attorney who represents some of the families of the shooting victims, said in an email to the AP that the call was more evidence that Card displayed concerning mental health behaviors in the lead-up to the shooting that weren't acted upon.
Gideon said if Card had been evaluated, a mental health provider “would have recognized the serious nature of Card’s psychosis” and taken steps to get him treatment and separate him from his guns.
In one call, a dispatcher tried to calm down a caller who was scared about the shooter’s whereabouts.
“Just do not make any sudden movements. If you know there’s police, put your hands in the air so they know you’re not armed,” the dispatcher said.
The caller then said, “never would’ve thought this would happen here in Lewiston, Maine,” before hanging up.
All told, 18 people were killed and 13 wounded when the Army reservist opened fire, leaving behind carnage and prompting a lockdown for tens of thousands of residents during the biggest manhunt in state history. It ended with the discovery of the gunman's body two days later in nearby Lisbon. An autopsy concluded he died by suicide.
An independent commission appointed by Gov. Janet Mills is investigating all aspects of the shootings, which sparked consternation over why warning signs about Card's deteriorating mental health were ignored.
Concern about Card’s behavior accelerated when he was hospitalized for two weeks while with his Army Reserve unit for training at West Point, New York. After his release, his access to military weapons was restricted, and he was no longer allowed to be deployed with his unit.
His fellow reservists remained worried about him upon his return to Maine. One of them wrote to a superior in September in a text: “I believe he’s going to snap and do a mass shooting.”
The FBI said Card’s hospitalization didn’t cause him to be placed on a list of “prohibited” people who are not allowed to have guns. And laws in New York and Maine aimed at removing guns from people who pose a danger were not invoked.
More than a month before the mass shootings, deputies visited Card’s home in Bowdoin twice, but he didn’t come to the door. A deputy who decided not to push the interaction expressed safety concerns. The sheriff backed him up, saying he didn’t have legal authority to knock down the door.
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Associated Press writers Alanna Durkin Richer and Michael Casey in Boston and Nick Perry in Meredith, New Hampshire, contributed to this report.