Amid massive search for mass killing suspect, Maine residents remain behind locked doors

Maine residents in fear as FBI, police search for suspect in mass shooting; 18 dead, 13 injured, 3 critical. Hundreds of heavily armed police and FBI agents search for Robert Card, an Army reservist suspected of fatally shooting 18 people in Maine's worst mass killing. Residents fearfully stay home as authorities search for Card, who is considered armed and dangerous. Schools, businesses, and public buildings closed as Maine Governor Janet Mills promises to seek justice for victims.

Shocked and fearful Maine residents kept to their homes for a second night as hundreds of heavily armed police and FBI agents searched intensely for Robert Card, an Army reservist authorities say fatally shot 18 people at a bowling alley and a bar in the worst mass killing in state history.

Much of Thursday’s (October 26) search focused on a property belonging to one of Card’s relatives in rural Bowdoin, where trucks and vans full of armed agents from the FBI and other agencies eventually surrounded a home. Card and anyone else inside were repeatedly ordered to surrender.

“You need to come outside now with nothing in your hands. Your hands in the air,” police said through a loudspeaker. In most instances when police execute warrants — even for suspects wanted for violent crimes — they move quickly to enter the home.

But hours later, after repeated announcements and a search, authorities moved off and it was still unclear whether Card had ever been at the location, state police said.

Richard Goddard, who lives on the road where the search took place, knows the Card family. Robert Card, who is four years younger, knows the terrain well, Goddard said.

“This is is his stomping ground. He grew up here," he said. “He knows every ledge to hide behind, every thicket.”