‘Why do people do this?’: Girl, 10, shot in the leg during Maine bowling alley massacre describes harrowing moment she thought she was going to die as cops say gunman Robert Card may have made getaway on JET SKI

• Zoey, 10, questioned ‘why do people do this’ after surviving horror shooting
• Police have named previously sectioned Robert Card, 40, as a person of interest
• Follow MailOnline’s liveblog for updates on the manhunt after Maine shooting 

A 10-year-old girl who was shot during the Maine bowling alley massacre has described the harrowing moment she thought was going to die – after a gunman went on a rampage and killed at least 18 people and injured 13 more in Lewiston.

Little Zoey Levesque, who said she ‘never thought she would grow up and get a bullet in her leg’, was among those wounded when the gunman burst in and opened fire with an AR-15-style rifle last night.

The young girl, who was practicing with her children’s bowling league, was ‘grazed by a bullet’ while fleeing with her mother before they eventually managed to get away and barricade themselves into a room at the back. 

The city of Lewiston is on lockdown as police hunt for previously sectioned Robert Card, a 40-year-old US Army reserve firearms instructor who recently reported hearing voices and threatened to shoot up his National Guard base in Saco, Maine.

Survivors and bereaved family members have started to speak out following the bloody massacre which started at Sparetime Recreation bowling alley at around 7pm local time (12am BST) and continued at nearby Schemengees Bar and Grille. 

It comes amid fears that Card – whose car was found abandoned in Lisbon after the shooting – has crossed states into Massachusetts. Police also believe he may have made his getaway on a jet ski.

After early figures suggested up to 22 were killed, Maine State Police confirmed in a press conference this afternoon that the death toll was 18 – seven victims were killed in the bowling alley, eight were found at the bar and three died in hospital. 

Zoey, 10, questioned ‘why do people do this’ as she sat beside her mother Meghan Hutchinson the morning after they survived the shocking attack at Sparetime Recreation in Lewiston 

Police have named previously sectioned Army reserve firearms instructor Robert Card, 40, as a person of interest. Card is from Bowdoin, and his car was found abandoned in Lisbon shortly after the shooting

The body of a victim in the Maine massacre shooting which killed at least 18 people has been wheeled out of the bar targeted by the gunman – as cops fear he may have crossed into Massachusetts with a ‘nightscope’

Law enforcement move body bags out of Schemengee’s Bar and Grille 

The gunman targeted Sparetime Recreation (pictured) in Lewiston at around 7pm on Wednesday before shooting at the nearby Schemengees Bar and Grille

They have issued an arrest warrant for the murder suspect for the eight victims who have been identified so far. 10 victims have not yet been identified. 

Harrowing images have emerged this afternoon of body bags being wheeled out of the bar where the gunman targeted as the community comes to terms with the tragedy.

Speaking about her survival story, Zoey told CNN: ‘I never thought I’d grow up and get a bullet in my leg. Like, why do people do this? 

‘I was more worried about, like, am I going to live and I going to make it out of here. Like, what’s going to happen? Are the cops going to come?’

Her mother Meghan Hutchinson told ABC: ‘She was grazed by a bullet while we were running.’

‘We were in the back room. Another child came in whose arm had a massive – was bleeding profusely.  So we barricaded in there and another parent was in the room with me. She had a phone and she called 911.’ 

The shooter used an AR-15-style rifle to open fire inside the Sparetime Recreation bowling alley at about 7pm Wednesday before targeting Schemengees Bar and Grille around four miles away.

Leroy Walker, whose son managed the bar, said he is convinced his son is dead.

‘If you had my gut right now, I feel like I’m squashed with a vice,’ Walker told NBC. ‘My neck in the back of my head feels like there’s a vice squashing it the other way.’

‘And I don’t know, telling you the truth, what kind of night this is going to be from now until tomorrow when I wake up to the true facts that my son is dead – and I know he’s dead.

The gunman, wearing a brown hoodie, is seen in Lewiston on Wednesday night. Police believe it is Robert Card

https://youtube.com/watch?v=4H24oIZvMhk%3Frel%3D0

A woman is hugged by a man at a reunification center at Auburn Middle School after shootings in Lewiston

Police officers in tactical gear get ready in the Lisbon High School gymnasium as an active search for the shooter is underway

Robert Card, a 40-year-old Army reservist and firearms instructor, has been named as the suspect in the murder of 18 people in Lewiston, Maine on Wednesday

Police issued a photo of this car which they believe belongs to Card. Sheriffs said at 11:20pm on Wednesday the car was found abandoned in the town of Lisbon, about seven miles away

This is Card’s last known address in Bowdoin, Maine

‘I know it as well as I know I’m standing here telling you because he’s not here and he’s not at any other hospital and he’s not running the streets or he would have called us, because he manages Schemengees, so I know he was there.’

Survivors have described how they escaped by fleeing down bowling lanes and hiding behind pins as the gunman used an AR-15-style rifle to open fire while children were playing – with teenagers among the injured. 

One Lewiston mother, Riley Dumont, was in the bowling alley with her daughter, and her parents, including her retired police officer father who leaped into action and saved several people’s lives. 

‘I heard a really loud bang. I didn’t think anything of it at the time, but my dad looked at me,’ Dumont told ABC.

‘Next thing I know, he was just taking the group that we were in and just corralling us in the corner,’ she said. 

‘He put tables over us and just made sure we were safe. He just kind of went into action at that point. It felt like it lasted forever.’

‘I kind of laid on top of (my daughter), and my mom was kind of on top of me. We had two other kids with us and two other mothers as well.’

Jessica Karcher said one of the wounded was her son Justin Karcher, who was shot in the spine and kidneys and was in surgery. He witnessed his father, Jean Karcher, being shot and killed in 2019 during an altercation in a Walmart parking lot, according to Lewiston’s Sun Journal newspaper. 

Chilling CCTV images show Card, from Bowdoin, Maine, pointing his rifle as he walked into the bowling alley, while dramatic footage shows terrified people running for their lives. 

One bowler, who only identified himself by his first name Brandon, said he heard 10 shots ring out before he ran down the alley barefoot and climbed inside the bowling machinery to hide from the gunman. 

Describing the moment that the shooter opened fire, Brandon said: ‘We were inside, just a normal night of bowling. Out of nowhere he just came in and there was a loud pop. 

Card remains on the run: police have said he is driving a white Subaru

Tactical team members get ready to head back out to search for the suspect of a shooting in Lisbon

The shooter used an AR-15-style rifle to open fire inside the Sparetime Recreation bowling alley on Wednesday night. The venue is pictured above

The gunman then moved onto the nearby Schemengees Bar and Grille, pictured above

‘I thought it was a balloon, I had my back turned to the door. And as soon as I turned and saw it was not a balloon, he was holding a weapon, I just booked it down the lane and I slid basically in where the pins are and climbed on the machine.

Brandon, who stayed on top of the machines for about ten minutes until the cops arrived, said that the gunman was around 15ft behind him. ‘He was close, very close,’ he added.

‘I just went there to bowl by myself and I wasn’t even in there 10 minutes, I just walked in the place. I was putting on my bowling shoes when it started. I’ve been barefoot for five hours.’

Jason J. Levesque told CNN that the youngest victims of the shootings were teenagers, adding that trauma specialists and grief councillors were at the scene. 

The bowling alley said in a statement: ‘None of this seems real, but unfortunately it is… We are devastated for our community and our staff. We lost some amazing and wholehearted people from our bowling family and community last night. There are no words to fix this or make it better. We praying for everyone who has been affected by this horrific tragedy. We love you all and hold you close in our hearts.’ 

‘In a split second your world gets turn upside down for no good reason,’ Schemengees posted on its Facebook page. ‘How can we make any sense of this.’ 

Maine’s governor Janet Mills says 18 people were killed and 13 were injured in while Lewiston councillor Robert McCarthy said the town was struggling to handle ‘this kind of a shooting event.’

Lewiston, a small city of about 38,000, is on lockdown as police hunt for Card who was sectioned this summer with mental health issues. He previously reported hearing voices and threatened to shoot up his National Guard base in Saco, Maine

As officials were seen wheeling a body bag out of Schemengees on Thursday morning, audio from police dispatchers indicates they believe the suspect has crossed the border to Massachusetts – armed with a nightscope

A distraught Maine councilor has said he knows his son was killed in the shooting – though authorities are yet to confirm – while a 10-year-old girl has spoken about being grazed by a stray bullet

Lewiston, a small city of about 38,000, is on lockdown as hundreds of police fanned out across Maine. 

‘Please stay inside your homes while more than 100 investigators, both local and federal work to locate Robert Card who is a person of interest in the Lewiston shootings,’ Maine State police said on Facebook. 

Lisbon Chief of police Ryan McGee has called the entire police department to assist in the search and closed local businesses.

Marine records seen by DailyMail.com show that Card registered a 2019 Sea Doo jet ski in his name in June, sparking fears that he could have used the watercraft to flee investigators after opening fire. 

Meanwhile audio from police dispatchers indicates they believe the suspect has crossed the border to Massachusetts – while armed with a nightscope.

A heavy police presence is outside the Central Maine Medical Centre on Thursday morning, with police standing at every entrance with high powered rifles. The hospital is under lock down and no visitors are allowed.

The FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and other federal agents have joined the search.

Detectives said they are looking into cellphone signals, social media and electronic records to build a timeline of his movements before the shooting.

The mayor of Auburn, a town next to Lewistown, said on TODAY that some of the witnesses thought the rampage was a Halloween prank.

Jason Levesque said: ‘They thought it was some sort of Halloween joke or something, the initial pops if you would, until everything started escalating quite rapidly.’

An unnamed mother asked for prayers for her 22-year-old son, who was hit four times and is on a ventilator. She told WMTV about 20 other people were waiting for updates on their loved ones at the hospital.

The shooting in the state´s second-largest city is the 36th mass killing in the United States this year, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University.

A police bulletin describes the suspect, Card, as a firearms instructor believed to be in the Army Reserve and assigned to a training facility in Saco, Maine.

The document, circulated to law enforcement officials, said Card had been committed to a mental health facility for two weeks in the summer of 2023. 

It did not provide details about his treatment or condition, but said Card had reported ‘hearing voices and threats to shoot up’ the military base.

Maine has a longstanding culture of gun ownership tied to traditions of hunting and sport shooting. The state doesn´t require permits to carry guns.

The death toll was staggering for a state that in 2022 had 29 homicides the entire year.

U.S. President Joe Biden has spoken to state officials to offer the federal government’s support and ordered flags to be flown at half-mast until Monday to honour the victims, his office said.

‘This is a frightening, frightening situation,’ White House spokesman John Kirby told MSNBC. ‘More needs to be done to get these weapons of war off the streets and out of people’s hands walking around Walmarts and grocery stores and bowling alleys.’

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