Sawt Falasteen - Divers scour river in search for US mass shooting suspect

As the manhunt neared its third day, authorities lifted a lockdown for residents in Lewiston, a hard-scrabble city in the mostly rural northeastern state, and in surrounding areas.

Robert Card, 40, is accused of carrying out the country's deadliest mass shooting of the year on Wednesday night. In addition to the fatalities, another 13 people were wounded.

Authorities on Friday identified the victims, ranging from a husband and wife in their 70s, to a 14-year-old boy killed alongside his father.

Early in the day, police deployed along the Androscoggin River in nearby Lisbon, seven miles (11 km) southeast of Lewiston, with divers using sonar to look for evidence -- or a body. Card's white SUV was found nearby, Maine public safety commissioner Mike Sauschuck said.

Sauschuck told an afternoon news briefing that businesses in the area can reopen, though hunting was prohibited in Lewiston and a few surrounding towns to avoid confusion from gunshots ringing out.

"We want our residents to remain vigilant," Sauschuck said.

Many resident around Lewiston "think he's dead," Cheryl Haggerty told AFP of Card, the fugitive Army reservist.

The real estate agent stood watching officers, a Glock pistol hanging from her black belt.

Like many in Maine, Haggerty said she believes owning a weapon provides a measure of security.

"If you have a gun, at least you hear the door, you're awake, you can be ready" to shoot back, she said. "You're gonna have a good chance."

- 'What's the next thing?' -

Throughout the area, speculation remained rife. How did the killer manage to vanish? Did he escape on a jet-ski after abandoning his car? Is he somewhere in the woods? Did he take his own life?

The race to locate Card weighed on Sauschuck amid the manhunt by city, state and federal security agents.

"Every minute that this goes on, we're more and more concerned, you know, because what's the next thing that's going to happen?" he asked.

Authorities said they have been flooded with more than 530 tips and leads to Card's possible whereabouts.

There was a brief flurry of excitement late Thursday when dozens of heavily armed officers, backed by armored vehicles and a helicopter, surrounded a Card family property in Bowdoin, near Lewiston.

State police warned, "please come outside" and "we don't want anyone to get hurt" over a loudspeaker.

By Friday afternoon, there was no indication that the police were any closer to finding the man that Maine Governor Janet Mills said remained armed and dangerous.

- 'Just a devastating situation' -

"Uneasy," Lewiston resident Jeremy Hiltz told AFP when asked how he felt. "It's a small community. When something like this happens, everybody knows somebody" affected.

He said a number of intersecting social crises have afflicted Lewiston, a city of some 38,000 inhabitants.

"This community itself has been devastated by addiction and housing crisis and poverty ... So to put this on top of it, it's really just a devastating situation for us," Hiltz said.

One longtime neighbor in Bowdoin, Dave Letarte, said news of the shooting "floored me."

An education center for the deaf and hard of hearing, located on a small island 45 minutes drive south of Lewiston, was particularly hard-hit by the tragedy.

Among those killed at the Schemengees bar-restaurant -- where the killer appeared after the rampage at the bowling alley -- were four men with ties to the school, as former students, educators or parents, Karen Hopkins, the school's director, told AFP.

"It's a heavy time. Our community is shattered right now," she said.

- Republicans oppose new laws -

Card is an army reservist, but had not been deployed in any combat zone. US media reported that he had recently been sent for psychiatric treatment after he said he was hearing voices.

This latest shooting is one of the deadliest in the United States since 2017, when a gunman opened fire on a crowded music festival in Las Vegas, killing 60 people.

C.Hamad--SF-PST