The U.S. Coast Guard joined the hunt for the prime suspect in the Lewiston, Maine, massacre after his car was found near a boat launch on the Androscoggin River, roughly 10 miles away from where 18 people were fatally shot and 13 were left grievously wounded.
The Lisbon Police Department discovered the 40-year-old suspect’s white Subaru Wednesday just before 10 p.m. at the Pejepscot Boat Launch in Lisbon.
The suspect is believed to own at least two means of traveling upriver to Merrymeeting Bay and thence to the Kennebec River: a 15-foot Bayliner boat, which is now unaccounted for, and a 2019 Sea-Doo personal watercraft, reported the Messenger.
As of Thursday evening, a Coast Guard vessel with a five-man crew was patrolling the Kennebec River, which could ultimately take the suspect to at least Moosehead Lake, some 170 miles away.
Chief Petty Officer Ryan Smith, the officer in charge of Station Boothbay Harbor, told the Messsenger the Coast Guard crew is searching the entire river for the suspect, who authorities noted is “armed and dangerous.” However, the crew was focusing in particular on the northern shore of the waterway, closer to the Androscoggin River.
The Daily Mail reported that earlier Thursday, Maine State Police aircraft also scoured parts of the area in search of the suspect.
Rick Gadden, a longtime neighbor of the suspect, told the Daily Mail, “If he can do that to innocent people there is obviously a chance he can come get us. … He knows this area like the back of his hand; if he doesn’t want to be found he won’t. He’s a hunter.”
Richard Goddard, familiar with the suspect’s family, told the Messenger, “This is his stomping ground. He grew up here. He knows every ledge to hide behind, every thicket,” referencing Bowdoin, one of the areas where police were searching.
The suspected shooter is an Army reservist with an active military ID who recently lost his job at a recycling center. Documents reportedly circulated by law enforcement indicate the suspect was committed to a mental asylum for two weeks this summer and had reported “hearing voices and threats to shoot up” a military base.
Robert Louden, a retired chief hostage negotiator for the New York Police Department, suggested to NBC News that “from that parking area where he dumped his car, there’s four distinct possibilities: He killed himself. He got on a boat and went down that little river that’s there. He went into another car or motorcycle or something that was waiting for him. Or there’s a hiking trail. He could be in the woods someplace.”
The Maine State Police indicated that as of noontime Thursday, over 350 law enforcement personnel from all over the state were involved in the search for the suspect.
The FBI and the U.S. Border Patrol Tactical Unit are also attempting to locate the shooter, reported Fox News Digital.
Facing the prospect of an attempt on the part of the suspect to escape into Canada, authorities in the northern nation, which shares 18 official entry points with Maine, have issued an “Armed & Dangerous – Firearms lookout” alert, reported Newsweek.
Canadian police in the province of New Brunswick, which borders Maine, are also monitoring the situation. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police indicated they are “aware of the situation in Maine, and we are continuing to monitor it in collaboration with our law enforcement partners.”
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