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Soon, Police Update on Manhunt for Person of Interest in Maine; Police Chief Says, Any Information Could Be Something; Sources Say, At Least 16 Killed in Maine Shootings, Gunman At Large. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired October 26, 2023 - 10:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[10:00:01]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: He shared this. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF RYAN MCGEE, LISBON, MAINE POLICE: We've had everything from people calling about you know, noises in the basement, noises in the woods, suspicious people, gunshots, all night long since the incident in Lewiston. We have our whole department working. I encourage everybody to call if they see something suspicious.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: See something suspicious, please call, which means they do not have to have this man in custody very clearly quite yet.

Police are still looking for this man, 40-year-old Robert Card. They say they're calling him a person of interest right now after these two mass shootings. One, the first occurred at a bowling alley in Lewiston, and the other at a restaurant nearby.

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. And then, as you say, Kate, the shootings happened in Lewiston, Maine. That's a city that's north of Portland, not far from Portland, and police say that a car linked to Robert Card was found in the town of Lisbon.

Now, this morning, the crime scenes are being processed, but we do know that at least 16 people were killed, as many as 60 others were injured. And you are looking at new video this morning from the tense scene just outside of that bowling alley moments after the rampage. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I suggest your safety, you go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's that?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I suggest that you go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I didn't hear you. What? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I suggest that you go. We have an active shooter and we're not sure where he's at as of this moment, okay? Keep yourself safe.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Let's start now with CNN Omar's Jimenez this hour. He is near the scene -- one of the scenes in this mass shooting, the restaurant in Lewiston.

Omar, what are you -- you've been there since, you know, before the sun came up this morning. What are you hearing from folks right now?

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, for starters, it's been a really active scene here with investigators and personnel coming in and out of the scene behind me that's marked off at checkpoint just over my shoulder. The bar is just a little bit further down that road.

And that's where we've been monitoring investigators as they've been going in and out. We've had a little bit of an elevated view looking down into that particular scene. And we've been able to see again, as I mentioned, investigators coming in and out, them taking things out of there, more personnel coming in and out.

So, obviously, while there's an active manhunt, there is also clearly an investigation and not just this scene, but also at the bowling alley, which is where the other mass shooting happened just a few miles away.

That said, the manhunt does seem to be the top priority here. All of law enforcement across the area have their resources trained on trying to find this person of interest, Robert Card, 40 years old. He was identified by police and they put out pictures that they believe can help with the case as well.

We have not gotten an update on whether they're closer to finding him or not at this point, but just the fact that he is on the loose and armed and dangerous, as he's been described by police, has put people on a higher level of awareness.

Take a listen to what law enforcement said late last night in the early hours of realizing that they have someone on the loose.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE SAUSCHUCK, COMMISSIONER, MAINE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY: If anybody sees Mr. Card or has any additional information referenced to these two shootings in the city of Lewiston, please contact 911.

If they see anything suspicious, please feel free to call their local authorities. We have literally hundreds of police officers working around the state of Maine to investigate this case to locate Mr. Card.

(END VIDEO CLIP) JIMENEZ: And that's really the stage that we're in right now. We've heard from police, at least in nearby Lisbon, Maine, which is the town over from Lewiston, that people have been calling in tips. They've been hearing things and police have checked them out. And even though they haven't panned out to this point, law enforcement, or at least the chief of Lisbon has said that, well, he wants those calls to come in because that means their citizens are being engaged.

That said, areas across -- places across this area have been in shelter in place warnings for quite some time now. Schools have been closed out of an abundance of caution as well. And so while this manhunt continues, there is a community here that is waiting, waiting, waiting to figure out when they can let out a sigh of relief that this person that they're interested in is caught.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. And speaking of being on pins and needles, I mean, just an update for everyone just seeing from CNN's Matt Egan, L.L. Bean, the outfitter, just told CNN that they have shuttered their flagship retail store, corporate headquarters, factories and other facilities in Maine, because of this manhunt and the mass shootings, as so many communities are essentially paralyzed as they're trying to wait -- as Omar says, waiting to offer a sigh of relief to everyone in getting and locating this person of interest.

[10:05:25]

Thank you so much, Omar.

Let's get over to Shimon Prokupecz now, which is -- Shimon, you're at the city hall in Lewiston, which is where we will get the latest information coming very soon. This is where the press conference is going to be from authorities, but you've also been speaking to local officials all throughout the morning.

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, all throughout the morning. The Lisbon police chief has been the only one that's really been speaking to reporters. The last time we heard from any city officials, any state officials, was late last night. And since then it's just been complete silence.

So, we do expect the government officials here, law enforcement officials here, we're seeing members of the ATF, the state police, we're seeing the U.S. Marshals, which generally -- they are the experts in the searches for the manhunts when someone is being looked for. They're called in as the experts.

But, Kate, driving here, we were in Lisbon all morning, and then driving here through the town and coming into this area, it's eerie to see so many of the stores closed because of that shelter in place, people afraid to leave their homes, gas stations closed, restaurants closed. And, really, there are cars on the road, but you're not really seeing people on the street, and it was somewhat eerie to see that, and it's all very understandable because the police are out there telling people, do not leave your home.

And we caught up with police this morning, as they were doing one of their searches. Someone called 911 saying that they heard something, and so they responded as they've been doing all night and all morning in Lisbon. And in this one community, we spoke to a resident and he described just how scary things are right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CORY, RESIDENT OF LISBON, MAINE: My wife, she normally gets up for work. She came and grabbed me and was like, hey, there's an active shooter and he's parked down where you go fishing at.

Nerves are rattled right now, keeping an eye on the woods because I know those woods down there, they go run right back here, and I got my daughter inside.

It's very unnerving right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PROKUPECZ: And so, hopefully, in the next 30 minutes here, Kate, we can start to get some answers from the officials on where they think this person of interest is, do they still think he's in Lisbon, because it's not really clear by the way police are responding and the police presence, the lack of, really, police presence in Lisbon that they think he's still there.

So, hopefully, we can get some answers. Perhaps they know more into a motive, into more about this individual. And, hopefully, we can start to get some answers in the next 30 minutes for people that are really living on edge right now because of the fear, and then, of course, for so many of the victims and the families who are having to deal with this and suffering with this pain.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. Shimon is right where all of this information, we hope, is going to be coming in less than 30 minutes at this point. So, we're going to bring that to you. Shimon is going to be there as soon as it begins.

And right now, let me bring in -- let us bring in former Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harris and also CNN Senior National Security Analyst Juliette Kayyem.

Juliet, you told our producers that your sister-in-law works at the University of Maine that is also on lockdown, even though it is many miles away from this area where this mass shooting happened. What does that tell you?

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: So, yes, she's about 200 miles away. It's not locked down. The school did actually just close. So, it's sort of like a lockdown. They don't want the students to congregate in classrooms.

You know, look, this is -- you know, last night, you locked down because you don't know where he is. And I think the challenge and what Shimon was saying that we may hear about in 20 minutes, but also over the course of the day is the same challenge that we had here in Massachusetts after the Boston Marathon lockdown, is how -- you can't keep these communities locked down indefinitely until you find him. This could be a multi-day search.

So, the decision to open up is essentially both a law enforcement but also a political decision. When are they going to open the community well aware that they have someone on the loose?

So, I anticipate we're going to hear something along those lines, maybe that they think that he's long gone, but this is the challenge of urban environments.

[10:10:04]

You just can't -- or even communities like this, you just can't shut them down indefinitely.

SOLOMON: And Michael, let me ask, I mean, you have led a large police chief before -- a large police force before. When we hear from the police in 20 minutes, walk us through the thread that they have to -- the needle that they really have to thread here in terms of communicating with the public, but also not giving away too much.

Charles Ramsey, the former police chief of Philadelphia, said this morning that bad guys watch T.V. too, and that is certainly a consideration as well.

MICHAEL HARRISON, FORMER BALTIMORE POLICE COMMISSIONER: It is a consideration. And from a police leadership perspective, there is so much to think about because you're thinking about the community, but you're also thinking about the safety of your personnel.

Here we are now, likely in the third cycle. If you think about this in eight hour shifts, this happened yesterday evening. We went through the night shift. And now we're in the next shift. So, we're in the third cycle of rotating likely police officers in and out, making sure that we give them rest.

But the question officers will ask themselves is, if and when we make contact, what would that encounter look like and am I prepared for that? And so a lot of planning has to be done between local, state and federal to figure out what kind of encounter this will be and how we're going to handle that.

But your other guest is right. We have to think about how long do we keep communities closed. It's one decision if the shooter shot one person, shot two people. But when you look at shot a number of people that caused a high number of deaths, double or triple number of injuries, some of which could likely turn to death, we're talking about the person who likely has the capacity to repeat that and may have enough ammunition to do that over and over again.

And the longer we are in these cycles where he is not apprehended, the more heightened tensions are going to be and the more difficult the decisions are to reopen the community because it's not a person who shot one person. It's a person who shot large numbers of people. And we anticipate and prepare ourselves for that kind of encounter when we encounter it. SOLOMON: Yes. As one law enforcement guest told me this morning, I mean, we still don't know and law enforcement still doesn't know if he reached his intended objective, which is just a horrifying thought.

Michael Harrison, Juliette Kayyem, if you can stay with us, please, as we continue to follow these developments.

In just minutes, in the meantime, authorities in Maine, they're going to give us an update on the mass shooting investigation. We will bring it to you live. Stay with us.

But, first, we will also take a closer look at how this tragedy unfolded as families and friends gathered at a bowling alley and a restaurant last night.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:15:00]

BOLDUAN: All right. Welcome back. Take a look right here, taking a look at the White House. And what you'll notice is that up top, the flags have been lowered to half staff. And this as we're learning from the White House is -- come from President Biden as the White House puts it a mark of respect for the victims of the senseless acts of violence perpetrated in Lewiston, Maine.

As this manhunt is underway, as they're looking for this person of interest, President Biden has ordered the flags to be lowered to half staff in respect of how deadly this mass shooting is turning out to be. Rahel?

SOLOMON: And, Kate, we, of course, continue to stand by for this update from Maine Police in just 15 minutes or so.

But right now, an intense manhunt is underway for a person of interest. That's what police are calling him. He is linked to that mass shooting that left at least 16 people dead. Take a look. This is the man that police are looking for, this person of interest. His name is Robert Card. He's 40 years old.

I want to now bring in CNN's Athena Jones to just tell us a bit more about what we know about this person.

ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. So, Robert Card, you have hundreds of officers now looking for this man. He's described as a certified firearms instructor and a member of the U.S. Army Reserves. And this is notable, in recent months he's reported having mental health issues, including hearing voices, also making threats to shoot up a National Guard base in Sacco, Maine. That's about 50 miles north of Lewiston.

So, this man, Robert Card, is who authorities have been looking for since last night. We should note that it's been more than 12 hours, 15 hours or so, since this all began to unfold. And it began at Just-in- Time Recreation. That is a bowling alley. They have an arcade as well and a grill. Lots of people of all ages, we're told from witnesses, were at that bowling alley. At the time we've seen video of people fleeing. He went later to Shemengees Bar and Grill, where more people were shot. And then we found -- the authorities found his car, Robert Card's car, in Lisbon, which is about seven miles away from Lewiston.

This whole area, Lewiston and nearby Auburn, which is a town two miles away, were all under a shelter-in-place order. We're talking about 60,000 people, so not a very populated area. Now, the latest update we have is that Lewiston, Lisbon, and the town of Bowdoin, which is about 15 miles sort of underneath this picture, that town is also under a shelter-in-place order as officials look for --

SOLOMON: Athena, while we're here, I just think it's important to point out that even though we're talking about a rural area, I mean these are miles apart from each other. These are about four miles apart from each other. So, really noteworthy that he started in one place, drove four miles away, and then allegedly, according to the police, committed the second act.

[10:20:07]

JONES: Right, there seem to be indications that this was well planned out. I mean, this is why he's still on the loose. He has not been yet tracked down. And it's not even clear where in the state he might be.

I wanted to show you that the part of -- well, this is this zooming in here, but we're talking about Southern Maine. You can see the distance from Portland, the largest city. But clearly a large area -- there's a large area that this man could have covered. We don't know if when he ditched that car, he got another car or some other vehicle, or if anyone else is helping him. But this is just part of the area that you can imagine is being searched.

And I should note, we see, again, those are just close-ups of the pictures that authorities released. Within an hour of the reports coming in on the scanner, the Sheriff's Office of Androscoggin County released several photographs to help the public identify this man, Robert Card. And here you have a close-up of that vehicle.

And then I just want to let you know that this is the 565th mass shooting in the U.S. this year. We are on track to break the record. We know that mass shootings hit 400 in July. And so it's a record- breaking pace, yet another one, and, by the way, at least the third that CNN has reported on this month.

SOLOMON: It's awful. It's awful. It's all awful. Athena, thank you. Kate?

BOLDUAN: We are standing by for that police update on these two mass shootings that happened yesterday evening and also on the manhunt, as police and law enforcement agencies are coming together to search for this man, this person of interest. We're going to bring that press conference to you as soon as it begins.

And also this, we're just getting new information in about the military service of Robert Card, this person of interest.

We'll bring that right to you after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:25:00]

BOLDUAN: All right. We have new information coming into CNN about the military service record of Robert Card, the person of interest that police are searching for connected to these two mass shootings in Maine.

CNN has now learned from records provided by the Army that Robert Card is a petroleum supply specialist in the Army Reserve. And according to the records, Card enlisted in December of 2002 and has had no combat deployments.

We're standing by. There's an image of him. Police are calling him a person of interest at this point, and we are standing by to hear an update from police about these mass shootings and the manhunt underway right now.

In the meantime, joining us now is Democratic Congresswoman from Maine Chellie Pingree. Congresswoman, thank you for coming on.

What are you hearing this morning?

REP. CHELLIE PINGREE (D-ME): Well, much is what you're hearing, of course, the same kinds of things. It's a very difficult situation in Maine.

This is a story we hear in other places. People go to a bowling alley. They go out to dinner for a cornhole tournament. They think it's going to be a quiet night with their teenager, and it turns into mass shooting events. But this is not what normally happens in Maine.

So, people are heartbroken. They're upset. Schools are on lockdown. So much of our communities are frightened because the shooter is still on the loose. This makes this a very unusual situation, and certainly in our state, where we are not used to these kinds of incidents. We're a small state, a small town, everyone knows everybody. It's really a terrifying and very upsetting morning.

BOLDUAN: Yes, it's like the -- as it was described to me, Maine is like the biggest small town that you'll come by. And to that point, I want to play for you something that we heard from the mayor of Auburn, Maine, what he told CNN this morning. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR JASON J. LEVESQUE, AUBURN, MAINE: I don't think there's going to be very few people in this community that have not been touched by this.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BOLDUAN: I also heard that from the Chamber of Commerce president that she is just waiting and holding her breath to find out who was injured and killed because she thinks no one is going to be unaffected by this. Is that what you're hearing?

PINGREE: Absolutely. Lewiston, Auburn, you heard the Auburn mayor, there are towns that are side by side, Lisbon, where they are currently looking for the shooter, right next door, Portland, Maine is only 30 minutes from Lewiston. I mean, we're just not very big and we all know each other. And particularly knowing, you know, this was teen night at the bowling alley. I mean, people are just on pins and needles wondering who was injured, who is no longer alive, and also, if the shooter is still on the loose, what else do we have to worry about?

BOLDUAN: And that is a big question. I mean, look, people are terrified. People are being asked to stay in their homes. Police are asking for help. If you hear anything strange or see anything strange, please call. Businesses are shutting down. Schools are closed today, as you know. I mean, what is your message to all of these communities right now?

PINGREE: Well, we have wonderful law enforcement and we've gotten reinforcements from the FBI, the Justice Department, from other states, from all around our state, are here to help with the manhunt, to help with security.

So, absolutely, stay home. Stay locked up. If you hear anything, we don't know if the shooter left on foot.

[10:30:00]

But it's very hard to find somebody on foot.

BOLDUAN: If you could stick with me, Congresswoman, I'm so sorry to jump in. We have the new House speaker, Mike Johnson, speaking about this now.