No sign of the suspect as huge manhunt takes dramatic shift, but officers did discover clues

As night fell in rural Maine, 24 hours after America’s worst mass shooting this year, focus in this huge manhunt took a dramatic shift.

SWAT teams in armored vehicles arrived at a property 20 miles to the southeast of the town, where 18 people were shot dead on Wednesday night.

With a helicopter and drones overhead, a searchlight was used and a loud-hailer too.

“You need to come outside now”, an officer could be heard saying.

The property, in a rural community called Bowdoin, is believed to be connected to suspect Robert Card. Police had been there earlier in the day but had been drawn back.

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In a statement released as the drama unfolded, a police spokesperson said it was part of a “very active manhunt”.

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It added: “Law enforcement officials are currently on Meadow Road in the town of Bowdoin to execute several search warrants.

“The announcements that are being heard over a loudspeaker are standard search warrant announcements when executing a warrant to ensure the safety of all involved.”

After nearly two hours, they left with no sign of their suspect, but there were clues: a note said to be relevant to the investigation.

Card is 40 years old, a former soldier, a firearms instructor now wanted for mass murder.

The small city of Lewiston is now entering its second day of lockdown. There is an eerie quiet on the streets after such chaos and violence.

A police line cordons off the bowling alley where seven people were shot dead. And in the car park of Schemengees Bar and Grille, yellow tape marks out the crime scene.

The victims were still being identified a day after the shooting – eight people died here. Among those lost, father and son Bill and Aaron Young, friends Jason Walker and Michael Deslauriers II.

And amid such tragedy there was a uniquely sad revelation. Some of the victims were members of the local deaf community who had come together for a sports tournament at the bar.

Beyond the obvious urgency to find the gunman, there is such a depressing familiarity to every aspect of all of this.

The pain of the community, of course. But also the way America’s media gathers, on-mass, for a day or two, before moving on, until the next one.

Then, of course, there’s the enduring question: why, again, in America? Maybe this time, a shift?

Late last night, while the manhunt continued, the community’s politicians called a news conference.

Among them, the local Democratic Party congressman, Jared Golden, who had flown back up here from Washington DC with a remarkable announcement.

“I have opposed efforts to ban deadly weapons of war, like the assault rifle used to carry out this crime,” he said.

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“The time has now come for me to take responsibility for this failure, which is why I now call on the United States Congress to ban assault rifles, like the one used by the sick perpetrator of this mass killing in my hometown of Lewiston, Maine.”

Next to him though, the Republican senator for the State, Susan Collins, who has in the past blocked legislation to ban assault-style rifles.

I asked her why people needed to be allowed to own such weapons.

“We do have a second amendment in our country,” she told me.

“And that gives people the right to own a weapon that powerful, you think?” I said.

She replied: “Maine, I would point out, has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in the country, and has a long heritage of responsible gun ownership.”

Card is known to have had mental health issues and his military commanders reported his erratic behaviour in July.

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