With 18 people confirmed to have been shot dead Wednesday night in Lewiston, the mass shooting at multiple locations in the city is the deadliest ever in Maine.
It also is the deadliest mass shooting in the United States this year and among the deadliest in modern U.S. history. An additional 13 people were injured by gunfire in the shooting spree, Maine Gov. Janet Mills said Thursday.
The severity of shootings Wednesday in Lewiston eclipses the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 people dead.
The Lewiston shootings come just six months after Maine had what at the time was considered the biggest mass shooting in recent history. Seven people were shot and the state gripped in fear when Joseph Eaton allegedly killed four people in Bowdoin and then injured three others when he opened fire on cars driving on Interstate 295 in Yarmouth.
Prior to the rampage in Lewiston, the deadliest shooting in the U.S. this year had been In January, when 11 people were killed when a gunman opened fire at a dance studio in Monterey Park, California.
The deadliest shooting ever in the U.S. was in Las Vegas in 2017, when a gunman killed 58 people and injured more than 500 who had gathered at an outdoor music festival. The year before that, 48 people were killed by gunfire at a nightclub in Orlando, Florida, making it the nation’s second-deadliest mass shooting.
In 2014, Joel Smith shot and killed his wife and their three children in Saco before turning the gun on himself.
In 2006, Christian Nielsen shot and killed four people over four days in the western Maine town of Newry. He first killed and set fire to the remains of a handyman of an inn where he was living, and over the next three days shot the inn owner, her daughter and the daughter’s friend, dismembering the body of each. He also killed three dogs who lived at the property.
In 1988, Earl Losier Jr. shot and killed four people — his brother, his brother’s girlfriend, and her two brothers — in Bangor after accusing them of playing music too loudly.
Over the past dozen years, there have been five other shootings in Maine that each resulted in three people being killed.
On Feb. 3, 2020, Thomas Bonfanti of Northfield shot and killed three people — 57-year-old Shawn Currey of Machias, 33-year-old Samuel Powers of Jonesboro and 49-year-old Jennifer Bryant Flynn of Machias. A fourth victim, Regina Hall Long, also was shot and left for dead but survived her injuries.
On July 5, 2017, Carroll Tuttle Jr., 51, shot to death his 52-year-old wife Lori Hayden, his 25-year-old son Dustin Tuttle and his 57-year-old neighbor Michael Spaulding in Madison. He also wounded another man, 57-year-old Harvey Austin of Skowhegan, before police killed Tuttle, bringing his rampage to an end.
That was the deadliest shooting in Maine since Nov. 4, 2015, when 42-year-old Herman DeRico killed his girlfriend, 28-year-old Amy Derosby, her sister Amanda Bragg, 30, and Bragg’s boyfriend, 28-year-old Michael Muzerolle. DeRico was found dead by his own hand in the driveway of his Belgrade Road home in Oakland, where his victims also were found. His victims had called 911 for help six times over 18 minutes.
On Aug. 13, 2012, police in Bangor found three charred bodies inside a burned car at Target Industrial Circle, located off Outer Hammond Street. Inside were Nicolle Lugdon, Daniel Borders and Lucas Tuscano who had been shot to death in a drug deal gone bad. Randall Daluz of Brockton, Massachusetts, and Nicholas Sexton, 34, of Warwick, Rhode Island, were convicted of their murders.
On June 13, 2011, Steven Lake, 37, shot to death his 38-year-old wife Amy Lake and their children, 13-year-old Coty and 12-year-old Monica, inside a Shore Road home in Dexter. He then killed himself. He was awaiting a July 5 court date, when he was to face charges for threatening his family with a handgun on June 14, 2010.
