Robert Card manhunt: divers searching river, cops with guns drawn surround residence

Maine authorities are sifting through over 500 tips as the manhunt for Lewiston shooting suspect Robert Card intensifies – serching in rivers, from the air and on the ground.

Shortly after noon, sheriffs with guns drawn and US Marshals raced up a street near the home of Robert Card’s sister in Monmouth County, Maine.

A child and an older woman were brought out of the properlty, but neither the woman nor child were taken into police custody.

Meanwhile, divers and sonar have been deployed in the river near where the culprit’s car was found.

“We’re not saying the suspect is in the water. [But] you’re gonna see a lot of activity [at the Androscoggin River],” Public Safety Commissioner Mike Sauschuck explained at a press conference in Lewiston City hall Friday morning.

An aerial patrol including planes and drones have been deployed in Androscoggin county near the Lisbon boat launch where Card’s Subaru was found late Wednesday, Sauschuck said.

“We have nothing to hide in that regard,” he insisted about the increased law enforcement presence in the area.

The thick forests around the rural area are being monitored from above, in case there is any sign of army-trained Card, who sources have told The Post would be capable of hiding out in the woods for days if he wanted.

Sauschuck also admitted police were “still days away” from fully processing the crime scenes at both Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley and Schemengees Bar and Grille where the shootings took place.

Eighteen people were killed – only eight of whom have been officially identified – and 13 more injured between the two locations, and officers are working to catalog each shot fired, he explained.

Law enforcement is also scrambling to follow up on “530-plus tips and leads” that have come in since the shooting, Sauschuck added.

Residents of Lewiston and nearby Auburn, Bowdoin, and Lisbon remain still under shelter in place orders nearly 48 hours after the suspect opened fire, the commissioner clarified. 

Sauschuck vowed that the restrictions would be an “ongoing conversation.”

“Does it make sense that those orders are still in place? They have not been changed in any way,” Sauschuck said.

“We realize that we want to keep our community safe … but they have some negative impacts on families that go to school and businesses and all of those things.”

While Card remains elusive, officials said that the Army Reservist’s loved ones are cooperating with the investigation – though they declined to provide details about what the family told them so far.

“We are absolutely heartbroken,” Card’s sister-in-law Katie O’Neill told The Post.

“This is beyond belief. We are doing all we can with law enforcement, giving all information we can. Our hearts and prayers are constantly with these poor families, we will not be making further statements at this time.”

Shortly after the Friday press conference, authorities in varying degrees of tactical gear were spotted in a wooded area of Monmouth and on a farm in Lisbon, not far from the boat launch.

“We just heard from a man who claims to work on the property who says he heard gunshots,” HearstTV’s Amy Lu wrote on X of the latter search.