Days after a mass shooting rocked Maine, weekend shootings in multiple cities left at least 12 people dead and dozens wounded
By Nouran Salahieh and Lauren Mascarenhas, CNN
(CNN) — Days after the nation’s deadliest mass shooting of the year left 18 dead and the subsequent manhunt for the gunman shook Maine, a series of shootings over Halloween weekend killed at least 12 people and wounded dozens across several states.
The rampage at a bowling alley and a restaurant in Lewiston, Maine, also wounded 13. An intensive 48-hour search for the shooter shuttered schools and kept residents behind locked doors as police searched for the gunman, whose body was found Friday inside a recycling facility box trailer.
The attack was among at least 583 mass shootings — where four or more are shot excluding the shooter — that have been recorded this year across the country, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
Thirteen of those shootings were recorded over the weekend alone, according to the archive.
In Indianapolis, a Halloween party ended with one person killed and nine others injured when shots were fired early Sunday, according to local police.
Then, a dispute between two groups erupted in gunfire as hundreds of people were filing out of the bars and nightclubs in Tampa, Florida, just before 3 a.m. Sunday, authorities said.
The shooting left two people dead and injured 16 others, ranging in age from 18-27 years old, authorities said. A 22-year-old suspect has been arrested and charged with second degree murder in the shooting, Tampa police said.
“Lives lost and others forever changed. To what end?” Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said in a statement on X. “Bad decisions made in a split second and the proliferation of readily available guns are responsible for these almost daily incidents.”
Over 1,000 miles to the north, at least 15 people were also shot early Sunday on Chicago’s west side, police said, at an event CNN affiliate WLS described as a large Halloween party.
Responding officers saw someone “shooting into the location where a gathering was taking place,” according to the Chicago Police Department. The person ran but was apprehended by officers a short distance away, authorities said.
In Kansas, two men were killed and two others were injured in a shooting following an altercation at a Dodge City restaurant and bar early Sunday, police said. A suspect was arrested later Sunday after fleeing to Oklahoma, according to Dodge City police.
In Lake Charles, Louisiana, a weekend house party ended with six people shot after a fight broke out, deputies said. The injured were all between the ages of 15 and 19, and a 17-year-old was taken into custody in connection with the shooting, according to the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office.
“This was a party full of teenagers. Once again we have to figure out how these weapons are getting in the hands of our kids,” Sheriff Tony Mancuso said in a statement.
Officers in Cumberland, Maryland, responded to a “chaotic scene” early Saturday where a shooting in an alley killed a 17-year-old boy and left three other people injured.
In Delaware, a 21-year-old woman was struck and killed by a bullet as she was getting into her car at a strip mall, police said. A fight broke out at a Halloween party late Saturday nightat one of the businesses in the strip mall and reportedly continued into the parking lot, where shots were fired.
The weekend’s gun violence comes as America’s scourge of mass shootings drags on. The restaurant and bowling alley in Maine now join the list of ordinary places throughout the country that became mass shooting scenes this year, including a Nashville school, a Louisville bank, a California dance hall and a Texas outlet mall.
Nearly 1 in 5 US adults has reported having a family member killed by a gun, including by homicide and suicide, according to a survey published in April by the Kaiser Family Foundation. About as many adults have been personally threatened with a gun, and about 1 in 6 adults has witnessed an injury from a shooting, the survey says.
After the suspect in Maine’s mass shooting was found dead Friday, President Joe Biden reiterated his call to Congress to address gun violence.
“Americans should not have to live like this,” he said in the statement. “I once again call on Republicans in Congress to fulfill their obligation to keep the American people safe. Until that day comes, I will continue to do everything in my power to end this gun violence epidemic. The Lewiston community – and all Americans – deserve nothing less.”
Child loses both parents in shooting
A 13-year-old lost both of her parents over the weekend after all three family members were shot during an argument at a San Antonio house party, authorities said.
Officers responded to a call about the shooting at about 9:40 p.m. Saturday and discovered five people had been shot, the San Antonio Police Department told CNN on Sunday.
A 20-year-old man was in the front yard of the party and pulled out a gun during an argument, shooting a mother, father and their 13-year-old daughter, police said. The father then took out a gun and shot back at the man, the department said.
The father, 40, and mother, 35, both died at the scene. Their daughter was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, according to police.
The initial shooter and his relative were also both shot and transferred to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
The 20-year-old is facing charges of capital murder of multiple persons and one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, according to police and court records.
That same night, about 400 miles away in Texarkana, Texas, three people died and three others were wounded in a shooting after a “fist fight” broke out between two men at a party in the back room of a business, according to the Texarkana Police Department.
One man died at the scene, according to the release, and a woman and another man died at an area hospital.
Authorities were still working to “determine exactly what happened and who all was involved,” Texarkana police said in a news release.
In Atlanta, a shooting near the Georgia State University campus early Sunday left four injured, according to Atlanta police. A large crowd was gathered in the area prior to the shooting, police said.
Two of the injured were students, Georgia State University President M. Brian Blake said in a statement.
Investigation into Maine gunman
Authorities are still working to uncover what motivated the deadly attacks in Maine, and digging into the history of the suspect, 40-year-old Robert Card.
As details emerge of serious warning signs about Card known to authorities before the shooting, questions have arisen about the potential lack of follow-through by authorities.
After Card fled the scene Wednesday, officers began a two-day manhunt for the gunman that ended with his body being found inside a box trailer sitting in an overflow parking lot of Maine Recycling Corporation in Lisbon, Maine Public Safety Commissioner Michael Sauschuck said at a Saturday news conference.
Card had recently been fired from the recycling center, a law enforcement source told CNN.
Law enforcement officials say Card, a US Army reservist and certified firearms instructor, had extensive training, including land navigation and firearms.
The Maine National Guard asked local police to check on the gunman after a soldier became concerned he would “snap and commit a mass shooting,” according to information shared with CNN.
Officers from the Sagadahoc County and Kennebec County Sheriff’s Offices responded and tried to contact Card on September 16, less than six weeks before Wednesday’s massacre, documents say, according to a law enforcement source.
Nearly three months before Wednesday’s shootings, Card tried to buy a firearm silencer from Coastal Defense Firearms in Auburn, Maine, but the owner of the store, Rick LaChapelle, refused to let Card complete the purchase after he disclosed on a form he had mental health issues, The New York Times reported.
Investigators are reviewing Card’s social media footprint as they probe for motive, and also working to establish a timeline up to the point he was found dead, law enforcement sources told CNN on Friday.
CNN’s Raja Razek, Jennifer Henderson, Paradise Afshar, Macie Goldfarb, Andy Rose, Shimon Prokupecz, Mark Morales, Linh Tran, Rachel Clarke, John Miller and Deidre McPhillips contributed to this report.
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