When a man began shooting in Maine, some froze while others ran. Now they're left with questions
CTV
People who survived the mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine recount their harrowing experiences.
The first loud noise 10-year-old Toni Asselin heard sounded like the thwack of a ball being hit hard across a pool table. She thought the second might have been someone dropping a bowling ball.
"The third one, when I walked over to see if someone was hurt, I saw a person get shot and fall off their stool," Asselin said.
It was just before 7 p.m. Wednesday at Just-in-Time Recreation, a 34-lane bowling alley where the $75 "Pizza, Pins and Pepsi" special included a large pizza, a pitcher of soda and two hours of bowling for six people.
One bowler had just removed his shoes when he thought he heard a balloon popping some 15 feet (4.5 meters) behind him. He turned toward the door, saw a man holding a gun, and took off running down one of the lanes.
"I slid basically into where the pins are and climbed up into the machine," he said.
The gunman, Robert Card, was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot Friday, two nights after he destroyed an innocent night of bowling and socializing and turned it into tragedy. People gunned down bowling for strikes and spares, throwing beanbags, shooting pool, having beers with friends, working the night shift.
For Asselin and her mother, Tammy, the situation was especially gut-wrenching. A coach hustled the 10-year-old and several of her youth league teammates outside. An employee hid some of the children in a backroom office while other workers barricaded themselves in a freezer. She became separated from her mother, who initially stood frozen as others fled.