Robert Card, the suspect in the ongoing Maine mass shooting, blamed his hearing aids for the unsettling voices he was hearing in his brain, including ones he heard at the pub where a monthly gathering of the local deaf community was taking place. Card is still at large.
According to his sister-in-law Katie Card, who spoke to the Daily Beast, the 40-year-old Army Reservist attributed his recent outburst of abuse on his new, potent hearing aid. She said that it “all just happened within the last few months.”
This includes the increased suspicion around both sites after the Lewiston massacre on Wednesday night, in which eighteen people, including four members of the deaf community, were killed at a pub and bowling alley.
Among those shot dead at Schemengees Bar & Grille at the monthly Wednesday night hangout for the deaf community to play cornhole were Steven Vozzella, Bill Bracket, Bryan MacFarlane, and Joshua Seal.
It was not immediately apparent whether the 40-year-old military marksman’s perceived hearing loss is the reason he deliberately targeted deaf persons.
Card claimed to have heard unsettling voices in his mind, but his family blamed the device, claiming that he specifically targeted the Just-In-Time Recreation Bowl, where 11 more people were killed on Wednesday, and Schemengees Bar.
When Katie spoke about her brother-in-law, she remarked, “He really thought he was hearing people say things.” “All of this occurred just a few months ago.”
Police in Maine claim Shortly before 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Card entered the Lewiston Just-In-Time Recreation Bowl and started shooting with an assault weapon. He is said to have attacked the about two-mile-distance Schemengees Bar & Grille shortly after, killing everyone inside and out.
In addition to the 18 people slain, 13 more people, including a 10-year-old child, were wounded by gunshots.
Seal, who rose to prominence as one of the primary interpreters for Gov. Janet Mills and Dr. Nirav Shah’s daily COVID briefings throughout the epidemic, was one of the four deaf community members believed to be among the deceased.
The killings, according to deaf community members, severely affected them.
Interpreter Regan Thibideau told Fox 23: “We are a community, a tight-knit community and support one another, and it’s devastating to know that we have lost some of our most valued, most cared for and cherished individuals within our community.”
She added on Thursday, “Mass shootings are terrible, but yesterday’s hits the deaf community everywhere especially hard.”
