Posts misidentify Maine mass shooting suspect
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on October 27, 2023 at 18:28
- Updated on October 27, 2023 at 20:28
- 4 min read
- By Natalie WADE, AFP USA
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"Lewiston Maine Mass Shooting Suspect Robert Card Has Been Previously Arrested For Child Pornography & Is A Registered Sex Offender Who CAN NOT LEGALLY POSSESS A FIREARM!" says an October 26, 2023 Facebook post sharing a supposed photo of the man.
Other social media posts making similar claims about the suspected gunman being a sex offender circulated on
Police have issued a warrant to arrest Card for murder after identifying him as a suspect in a deadly mass shooting at two separate locations in Lewiston, Maine on October 25, 2023. At least 18 people were killed and another 13 wounded at a local bar and bowling alley.
Authorities have struggled to locate Card, who they say fled after opening fire. A wide area around Lewiston remained locked down October 27, more than 24 hours after the rampage, and officials warned the fugitive was "armed and dangerous."
The shooting is one of the deadliest in years, although the United States has seen more than 560 mass shootings -- events in which four or more victims are shot, not including the shooter -- so far in 2023, according to the Gun Violence Archive (archived here).
Authorities have released some details about Card's background, but posts claiming he is a sex offender falsely conflate the alleged crimes of two men who share the same name.
The bespectacled man in the photo shared online is Robert W Card, who in 2016 was charged with possessing and disseminating child pornography, according to a local news report (archived here). At the time of his arrest, he was a resident of Fairfield, Maine.
"This is not the same person," said Shannon Moss, a public information officer for the Maine Department of Public Safety who confirmed the two men have different dates of birth.
The Lewiston Police Department has released images of suspect Robert R Card: a bearded man dressed in a brown hoodie and blue cargo pants, armed with an assault rifle.
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The US Army previously told AFP that Card is a sergeant first class in the Army Reserve with "no combat deployments." He enlisted in December 2002.
The suspected gunman, born in 1983, is also a certified firearms instructor from Bowdoin, Maine, according to multiple law enforcement sources.
The misidentified person, 39-year-old Robert W Card, appears in the National Sex Offender Registry with two addresses listed in Maine.
The suspected gunman, meanwhile, does not appear in the database. AFP could find no other publicly available evidence that he was previously arrested for child pornography.
AFP has debunked other posts misidentifying mass shooters here, here and here.
October 27, 2023 This article was updated to add a content warning to images of the alleged shooter.
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