The man suspected of shooting dead 18 people and wounding 13 in Lewiston, Maine, has been found dead, ending a 48-hour manhunt that followed the most lethal episode of gun violence in the state's history.
The body of Robert R Card, 40, was discovered in the woods near the neighbouring town of Lisbon Falls, near where police found his abandoned vehicle shortly after the shooting rampage on Wednesday night.
"He is dead," Maine Governor Janet Mills told a news conference, thanking the hundreds of officers from various agencies involved in the search.
"Like many people, I am breathing a sign of relief tonight, knowing that Robert Card is no longer a threat to anyone ... Now is the time to heal," Mills said.
Card died of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound, said Mike Sauschuck, Maine's Department of Public Safety commissioner.
The US Army reservist had opened fire in a bowling alley and then a bar minutes later on Wednesday night.
The shootings and prolonged manhunt convulsed the normally bustling but serene community of Lewiston, a former textile hub and the second-most populous city in Maine.
Card, an Army Reserve sergeant from the nearby town of Bowdoin, has been described by authorities as a trained firearms instructor who served as a petroleum supply specialist when on duty at the military reserve base in Saco, Maine.
Law enforcement officials also said he had a history of mental illness and was committed to a psychiatric facility for two weeks during the summer of 2023, after which he was released.
Hundreds of officers from an array of agencies ranging from local police and sheriff's deputies to the FBI and US Coast Guard joined the search, while residents were told to shelter in place.
The initial trail of clues led to Lisbon, about 11 km to the southeast of Lewiston, where Maine State Police found a white SUV they believed Card used to make his getaway and parked at a boat launch on the river. Public records showed he owned at least one watercraft.
Police trawled the waters of the Androscoggin River with divers and sonar on Friday, and sent teams of officers door-to-door seeking additional clues and possible eyewitnesses.
The bloodshed rattled towns throughout Androscoggin County as residents joined the growing list of US communities to suffer from a gun massacre.
The names and pictures of the 16 males and 2 females who died were earlier released as Sauschuck asked for a moment of silence at a news conference.
The victims ranged in age from 14 to 76, and included four members of the deaf community.
The number of people killed in Wednesday's attacks is close to the annual number of homicides that normally occur in Maine, which has fluctuated between 16 and 29 since 2012, according to Maine State Police.
Guns are lightly regulated in Maine, where about half of all adults live in a household with a firearm, according to a 2020 study by RAND Corporation.
Maine does not require a permit to buy or carry a gun, and it does not have so-called "red flag" laws seen in some other states that allow law enforcement to temporarily disarm people deemed to be dangerous.
