To reach a suicide prevention hotline, call the new 988 three-digit hotline or visit suicidepreventionlifeline.org. Suicide prevention services can also be reached at 888-568-1112 or 800-273-TALK (8255).
Robert R. Card II died from a gunshot to the head, the Maine medical examiner’s office confirmed Friday.
The manner of death is suicide.
The autopsy confirms earlier statements from police about how Card died, which was described as a self-inflicted gunshot. Card’s time of death is Friday evening when his body was found at the Maine Recycling Corporation in Lisbon. In Maine, the official time of death for a person is when the body is located, the medical examiner’s office said.
Card, 40, of Bowdoin committed the worst mass shooting in Maine’s modern history, fatally shooting 18 people and injuring 13 more at Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley and Schemengees Bar and Grille on Oct. 25.
A Smith & Wesson M&P .40 caliber handgun and a Smith & Wesson M&P 15 were found with Card’s body. The medical examiner’s office did not confirm the caliber of weapon that killed Card.
More information from the autopsy report was not immediately available.
“The final report will not be released without next of kin permission, and it may be several months before the report is available due to additional studies being conducted,” a spokesperson for the medical examiner’s office said.
Card was a 20-year member of the Army Reserve in Saco. The U.S. Army prohibited Card from handling weapons and live ammunition on Aug. 3, shortly after he had a two-week stay at Four Winds Hospital, a New York mental health treatment facility.
Gov. Janet Mills is forming a commission to investigate what led up to the mass shooting. She is the first top Maine official to acknowledge there were multiple warning signs about Card that may have been ignored or at least overlooked.
